A New York congresswoman announced a $3 million relief package for the site of the soon-to-be-decommissioned Indian Point Energy Center in New York to help revitalize the local economy on Wednesday.
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) plans to use the funding to create a new educational recreation facility on the Hudson River, roads and a water line in the town of Cortlandt, which has hosted the energy center since the 1970s.
“The closure of a nuclear plant has a significant economic impact on the surrounding community,” Lowey said in a press release announcing the funding awarded through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration Assistance to Nuclear Closure Communities Program.
The upstate New York plant will close in April, taking over 1,000 jobs and millions of dollars in tax payments along with it. Holtec International Corp. agreed in April 2019 to acquire it from Entergy Corp. to decommission.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to finish its evaluation to transfer the facility’s license from Entergy to Holtec by the end of the year. Once the title is successfully transferred — Holtec says that could happen by the second quarter of 2021 — the company will be able to begin the $2.3 billion decommissioning process, which it said will take up to 15 years.
Lowey, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, is retiring after the election, drawing the curtain on a 31-year career in the House of Representatives.
