#IndianPoint

Roger Witherspoon

Mar 31, 2016
7 min

Critical Nuclear Reactor Bolts Fail at Indian Point 2

By Roger Witherspoon A special inspection of the Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor found that more than a quarter of the stainless steel bolts needed to channel cooling water through active nuclear fuel rods were broken, distorted or “missing”, a finding that calls into question the effectiveness of the long term management of this and other ageing power plants. The inspection, which began March 7, concerned the 832 “baffle-former assembly bolts” which hold special metal plates

Roger Witherspoon

Feb 13, 2016
6 min

Indian Point Contaminates the Hudson River With Uncontrollable Radioactive Flow

By Roger Witherspoon For more than a decade, it has been impossible for operators of the Indian Point nuclear power plant to stop highly radioactive reactor and spent fuel pool coolant from leaking into the groundwater and migrating to the Hudson River. And despite assurances from Entergy that this time will be different, there is no indication that the company has developed the ability to prevent the latest uncontrolled leaks from following the underground waterway into the

Roger Witherspoon

Dec 13, 2012
7 min

Double-Teamed: New York Battles the Feds And Entergy to Close Indian Point Nuclear Plant

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article William Holston was obviously exasperated. For nearly two hours he had fielded the brunt of increasingly detailed queries from the three Administrative Law Judges, on the adequacy of a deliberately vague set of guidelines to oversee the operations of the Indian Point nuclear power plants for the next 20 years. And though Entergy had four of its own experts on the extended witness stand, most of the judges’ queries were direc

Roger Witherspoon

Nov 30, 2012
5 min

When the Nuclear Fission Stops: PSC Seeks Future Without Indian Point

By Roger Witherspoon The two utilities providing electricity to New York City and Westchester County have been ordered by the State Public Service Commission to plan for a future without electricity from the Indian Point nuclear power plants. In the first concrete action taken by a state agency to move towards a non-nuclear energy future in the lower Hudson River Valley, the PSC ordered Consolidated Edison and the New York Power Authority “to develop and file a contingency pl

Roger Witherspoon

Nov 4, 2012
7 min

Riding out the Storm: Sandy vs. the Nuclear Plants

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article The roaring winds, at times approaching 100 miles per hour, were relentless as Hurricane Sandy pushed the Atlantic Ocean towards the eastern seaboard. The sheer breadth of the Superstorm, with hurricane-force winds radiating some 250 miles from Sandy’s eye, meant 34 nuclear power plants from North Carolina to Vermont would experience extreme weather. While the winds themselves posed little danger to the primary physical struc

Roger Witherspoon

Oct 29, 2012
3 min

Nuclear Plants Brace for Rising Wind and Water

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article Eleven nuclear power plants in the direct path of Hurricane Sandy – including all four in New Jersey – are on special alert status with additional federal monitors and plans to shut down if the winds or waves exceed safe storm limits. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission dispatched extra monitors this past week end to augment the two full-time resident inspectors at each plant to ensure that proper procedures are followed as the

Roger Witherspoon

Oct 26, 2012
7 min

A Question of Competence: Will Indian Point be Safe for Decades?

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article Robert Aleksick was emphatic. “FAC is like roaches,” he said, spreading his arms wide in a gesture of exasperation. “Where you see one, there are bound to be more hidden away.” Aleksick should know about these hidden pests. As president of CSI Technologies, Inc., he is one of the nation’s foremost experts on FACs, or Flow Assisted Corrosion, a condition of degradation on the inside of pipes carrying superheated, radioactive w

Roger Witherspoon

Oct 7, 2012
4 min

Security Problems at Three NJ Nuclear Plants

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article Federal regulators, after six months of intensive examination, have found serious deficiencies and violations of law in the security at three of New Jersey’s four nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors found the deficiencies at the Hope Creek and Salem 1 and 2 reactors operated by PSEG Nuclear following a series of inspections that began in December, 2011, and formally concluded August 27, 2012. Th

Roger Witherspoon

Sep 9, 2012
6 min

Turning off Indian Point And Keeping the Subways Running

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article For the past decade, Entergy and supporters have proclaimed that its twin Indian Point reactors are all that keeps the trains running, the street lights on and school buildings operating throughout New York City and neighboring Westchester County. Entergy, which actually provides about 5 percent of the electricity used in the area, can get away with its misleading advertising for only one more year. The New York Power Author

Roger Witherspoon

Aug 20, 2012
5 min

Radioactive Quandry: States Wonder What’s Next for Spent Fuel

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article The Nuclear Regulatory Commission faces a Thursday deadline to challenge a landmark, unanimous decision by a three-judge Appellate Court panel in June which ordered the agency to develop site specific assessments of the environmental impact of meltdowns in the bulging spent fuel pools before extending the licenses of some 30 nuclear power plants. Immediately after receiving the June 8 decision the NRC asked the court for the

Roger Witherspoon

Aug 9, 2012
7 min

NRC Halts New Nuclear Licenses: Existing Licenses in Doubt

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article In an unprecedented move, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has bowed to a court order and imposed a temporary halt in relicensing nuclear power plants until it thoroughly examines the impact of runaway meltdowns at the plants’ spent fuel pools. That action affects the relicensing evaluations of some 33 facilities at 19 sites, including Indian Point 2 and 3 on the Hudson River opposite Bear Mountain. And it leaves in limbo

Roger Witherspoon

Jul 25, 2012
10 min

Dropping by the Millions: NRC Downgrades Indian Point Fish Kills

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article In a stunning change of position, federal regulators have downgraded by a factor of 1,000 the 31-year-old data assessing the fish killed annually by the Indian Point nuclear power plant. In addition, the regulators assert the plants’ thermal plume causes minimal damage to the Hudson River environment and may fit state requirements for a hot water discharge permit. The direct impact of the change by the Nuclear Regulatory Comm

Roger Witherspoon

May 25, 2012
8 min

White House Moves Swiftly To Replace NRC’s Jaczko

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article The White House, wasting no time lamenting the pending departure of embattled Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko, has nominated Allison M. Macfarlane, a geologist with 20 years’ experience in public policy and nuclear waste issues to replace him. Dr. Macfarlane, who earned her doctorate in geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and works currently as associate professor of Environmental Scienc

Roger Witherspoon

May 22, 2012
8 min

Fractious NRC Forces Chairman’s Resignation

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article Gregory Jaczko resigned as head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Monday, ending months of open warfare with the staff and the other four commissioners over safety issues and a personal style often perceived as imperious. Jaczko’s departure stills the agency’s lone major voice pushing for increased safety measures at the nation’s 104 nuclear power plants despite the its long-standing aversion to imposing costly fixes on th

Roger Witherspoon

Oct 26, 2011
5 min

Indian Point vs. the Hudson River: Hearings Begin on Cooling System Impacts

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article “…EPA’s insupportable assumption that screening technologies are available at nuclear facilities, threaten the viability of existing plants and their daily contribution to cost-effective electricity….” Brief, Entergy Corp v US EPA 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals July 5, 2005 For much of the last decade Entergy Nuclear, the owners of the twin Indian Point reactors in New York, have battled environmental regulators from the state

Roger Witherspoon

Oct 8, 2011
4 min

Weapons Upgrade Sought For Indian Point Guards

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article Entergy Nuclear has asked federal regulators to override New York State’s weapons law to allow Indian Point guards to carry heavier weaponry on the nuclear site than standard commercial security guards. The request comes ten years after terrorists flew a hijacked plane directly over the twin containment domes on the Hudson River en route to a suicidal dive into the World Trade Center 25 miles to the south. In the interim, Ent

Roger Witherspoon

Mar 30, 2011
6 min

Feds Rate Region’s Nuclear Fleet “Safe” But Japanese Problems Fuel Skepticism

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article All six nuclear reactors in the New York/ New Jersey metropolitan area are operating “in a manner that preserved public health and safety” and therefore will receive the minimal oversight during the coming year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared in its annual assessment. In separate reviews, the NRC concluded that New Jersey’s Hope Creek, Oyster Creek, and twin Salem Generating Station plants and the two Indian Point

Roger Witherspoon

Feb 16, 2011
6 min

Suit Seeks Review of Local Nuclear Waste Storage

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article A federal court suit challenging the right of nuclear plant operators to store high level radioactive waste on site for 60 years or more was filed yesterday by the attorney generals of Vermont, New York, and Connecticut. The suit, filed in the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC., seeks to overturn a temporary storage rule adopted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Dec. 23, 2010. The NRC’s order, formally known as the Was

Roger Witherspoon

Dec 5, 2010
6 min

Entergy Leaving Gotham Behind

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article Entergy Nuclear has dropped its share of electricity supporting New York City and Westchester County to about 4 percent of the area’s power needs while selling increasing portions of its juice in an open market stretching from Maine to Delaware. The company is spending millions of dollars on an extensive campaign to convince the public that the region would suffer if the nuclear plants at Indian Point were shut and its 2,100

Roger Witherspoon

Nov 15, 2010
11 min

Reversal of Fortune: Entergy’s Humbling Nuclear Venture

By Roger Witherspoon Download and/or Print Article Entergy Corporation’s low key announcement might well have been posted on Craig’s List: For Sale: Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Used, unpredictable radioactive leaks, occasional fires, poorly run, financially indebted, locally unpopular, politically shunned and currently not working. $180 Million – Or Best Offer. “Selling an old nuclear plant is like trying to build a new one,” said economist Mark Cooper of the Universi

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