What there is to know
- Plans to dump radioactive wastewater from a disused nuclear power plant into one of New York’s rivers this spring have been canceled, the company in charge of the facility announced this week.
- The move follows a strong backlash from state and local leaders opposed to Holtec’s plans for the Indian Point Energy Center located about 35 miles north of New York City.
- As part of the decommissioning, the company reportedly plans to dump up to 1 million gallons of radioactive sewage into the Hudson River starting in May.
NEW YORK — Plans to dump radioactive wastewater from a disused nuclear power plant into one of New York’s rivers this spring have been called off, the company in charge of the facility announced this week.
The move follows a strong backlash from state and local leaders opposed to Holtec’s plans for the Indian Point Energy Center located about 35 miles north of New York City.
As part of the decommissioning, the company reportedly plans to dump up to 1 million gallons of radioactive sewage into the Hudson River starting in May.
“Following discussions with key state actors, who wish to enable additional public outreach, we have decided not to proceed with the discharge scheduled for early May,” the company’s communications director wrote Thursday. , Patrick O’Wrote. .
“While Holtec notes that the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ultimate authority over releases of radiological fluids at Indian Point and other locations across the country, we hope this voluntary pause will be viewed positively as an indication of our willingness to work with the State and with the surrounding community”.
The Westchester County facility is home to three nuclear power plants that operated from 1962-2020. Holtec International acquired the facility from Entergy Corp. in May 2021 and said it plans to complete the decommissioning effort decades before Entergy retains ownership.
At the time of the acquisition, reports indicated that decommissioning the nuclear site along the Hudson River would cost around $2.3 billion and take at least 12 years.
Indian Point Unit 1 was permanently decommissioned in 1974. Unit 2 did not close until April 2020, while Unit 3 closed on April 30, 2021. The latter two, which have came online with two years of Unlike in the mid-1970s, they were once a primary source of electricity in New York City and the lower Hudson Valley.
State lawmakers representing the region welcomed the decision to prevent discharges into the river.
“I am relieved that Holtec has wisely decided to back out of its attempt to expedite the schedule for its releases into the Hudson River,” said Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg.
Despite the announcement, Levenberg planned to meet with other county officials on Friday afternoon to seek passage of a state bill prohibiting “the discharge of any radiological agent into state waters.”
“The lack of transparency and inadequate communications with the public about this plan has been unacceptable, and our constituents’ concerns about the composition of the water cannot be ignored. I look forward to full and thorough responses from Holtec, the NRC and other regulators. . to our questions about Holtec’s monitoring of the ACI decline,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said in a statement.