A big nuclear industry trade group plans to jump into the ongoing controversy surrounding the decommissioning of Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station to “help educate and inform” policy makers, an industry executive said this week.
The Nuclear Energy Institute will step in “as requested by our member companies,” Bruce Montgomery, the industry group’s director of decommissioning and used fuel programs, said at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Regulatory Information Conference Thursday.
The Indian Point plant, located in Buchanan, N.Y., has been the topic of months-long contention between several key stakeholders and the NRC.
The D.C. circuit court of appeals moved Tuesday to consolidate two current petitions — one from the town of Cortlandt, N.Y. and another from New York state attorney general Letitia James — against the commission over the sale of Indian Point to Holtec International from Entergy. Holtec is supposed to assume ownership of the power plant’s when Entergy closes down its Unit 3 reactor for good in April.
On Monday, the court combined New York state’s complaint with one from environmental group Riverkeeper, Inc. That makes three petitions the court is considering as one.
Entergy and Holtec International are also involved in these proceedings. The companies filed a joint motion to intervene Feb. 18.
The Indian Point sale has received attention from the local, state and federal levels in recent months. The executive of Westchester County, N.Y., where the plant is located, implored the state public service commission Feb. 23 to step in on the matter. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand (Both D-N.Y.) penned a letter in support of a public hearing on the Indian Point sale back in October.
New York’s challenge to the Indian Point license transfer, filed Jan. 22, asked the court to review the commission’s Jan. 15 decision in which it denied the state’s request for a public hearing on the issue.
All of the petitioners, including James, raised concerns in the petition about Holtec’s ability to pay for decommissioning — in particular, its plan to use the $2.1 billion Indian Point trust fund for activities other than decommissioning the plant, such as site remediation and spent fuel management.
The Indian Point plant, located in Buchanan, New York, shut down its Unit 1 reactor in 1974. Unit 2 was shuttered late last year, leaving Unit 3 as the last to be switched off in April.
