Another New York politician this week leaned on the state’s Public Service Commission to block the transfer of the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station’s operating license to Holtec International until the latter proves it can afford to safely decommission the site.
On Tuesday, George Latimer, county executive for Westchester County, N.Y., echoed concerns earlier voiced by state Attorney General Letitia James about Holtec International’s “financial ability” to safely decommission Indian Point and its three reactors, fretted about the company’s planned use of plant decommissioning funds for spent fuel management and questioned the environmental adequacy of the site’s decommissioning plan.
“In granting the application for transfer of Entergy’s Indian Point License to Holtec and allowing Holtec to use Decommissioning Trust Funds for spent nuclear fuel management, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission skirted all of these issues and refused to even hold a hearing to address them,” Latimer wrote in testimony to the New York State Public Service Commission.
Holtec and Entergy banded together in February to oppose James’s January request that the D.C. circuit court of appeals review NRC’s license transfer approval. One key hangup for the New York pols is Holtec’s planned use of Indian Point’s decommissioning trust fund for spent fuel management — something that required special permission from the NRC. There is a little more than $2 billion in the trust fund, which Holtec says is enough for decommissioning and fuel management.
Indian Point is in Buchanan, N.Y., within Westchester County’s jurisdiction. The NRC approved the license transfer to Holtec from Entergy in November, over the objections of powerful New York politicians including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the majority leader, and his colleague Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). The transfer will be effective after Unit 3’s scheduled shutdown in April. Unit 2 went offline last year and Unit 1 shut down in 1974.
