As part of a suit filed in April against New York, Holtec International this week asked a federal judge to void a state law that prohibits a company subsidiary from discharging irradiated water from the decommissioning of a nuclear-plant into the Hudson River.
The company’s motion for summary judgment against New York, which Holtec said violated the federal Atomic Energy Act by attempting to regulate radioactive materials, was an expected step in the lawsuit that will grind on most of the rest of this year and perhaps into the next.
The parties in the suit will not finish briefing the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York until Dec. 6, according to filing deadlines in the case.
New York in 2023 banned the discharge of irradiated wastewater into the Hudson, throwing a kink in Holtec’s schedule for decommissioning the shuttered, three-reactor Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanen, N.Y., which sits near the Hudson’s banks some 50 miles upriver from downtown Manhattan.
The ban carries fines. For a first-time offense, an offender would pay $25,000 a day. For second-time offenses, the penalty would increase to $50,000. For subsequent offenses, Holtec would get a fine of $150,000 a day, under the law.
New York has said that, during a plant’s decommissioning, a state’s right to regulate on behalf of the economic interest of its citizens outweighs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s interest in nuclear safety.
New York also accused Holtec this summer of violated the discharge ban. The company denied that.
