New York state lawmakers were set to convene for a special session on Tuesday that will include consideration of a bill prohibiting discharge of irradiated wastewater into the Hudson River.
The bill, S06893, would make it “unlawful to discharge any radiological substance into the Hudson River in connection with the decommissioning of a nuclear power plant,” according to a summary of the legislation posted on the state Assembly’s website.
New York has a bicameral legislature that includes a state Assembly and a state Senate. The state Senate passed the bill on June 9, the last day of the legislature’s regular session.
The bill is aimed squarely at Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., an affiliate of which is decommissioning the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, N.Y., some 50 miles upstream of the Hudson from downtown Manhattan.
If passed, the ban would include escalating penalties for wastewater discharges from shuttered nuclear plants, with a fine of $25,000 per day for the first offense, $50,000 for the second and $150,000 for subsequent offenses, according to the bill.
Holtec has lately faced pressure from locals and their congressional representatives in both New York and Massachusetts about wastewater discharges from shuttered nuclear power plants. In Massachusetts, state lawmakers are trying to block discharges from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant’s spent fuel pool into Cape Cod Bay.
