Clearwater Demands Swift Formation of Decommissioning Oversight Board For Soon To Be Holtec's Indian Point

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Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, launched in 1969 by legendary folk singer and activist Pete Seeger, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater has been at the forefront of the environmental movement as a champion of the Hudson River. Clearwater has been one of the leading organizations advocating for and monitoring the closing of Indian Point, which is entering into the decommissioning phase.

Regarding the sale, Governor Andrew Cuomo stated: "As Governor and previously as Attorney General, I have been deeply concerned with the safety of the Indian Point nuclear power facility given its proximity to some of the most densely populated areas in the nation. This is a win for the health and safety of New Yorkers, and the protection of our environment."

The sale of Indian Point to Holtec comes with a number of requirements, some of which are reported on at lohud. New York State’s Department of Public Service stated that an Indian Point Nuclear Decommissioning Oversight Board would be formed as part of the deal. According to reporting, Holtec, which is based in New Jersey, “wants to build an interim underground repository in the New Mexico desert for the 83,000 metric tons of nuclear waste stored at power plants across the U.S.”

To keep the pressure on the Decommissioning Board, Clearwater issued the following press release on Friday, May 21, 2021:

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The recent announcement that the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) approved the transfer of Indian Point’s licenses to Holtec International makes it urgent that the Commission convene a Decommissioning Oversight Board (DOB) immediately to review the company’s decommissioning plans.

The DOB should be comprised of all State agencies with jurisdiction over various aspects of decommissioning, together with independent scientists and experts in relevant fields, and a diverse group of representatives of affected communities, including environmental justice communities, environmental and citizens’ groups, business, labor, and first responders.

It’s important for the DOB to meet now, with its first order of business being to review Holtec's proposed Post-Shutdown Activities Report – their actual plan for:

  • Decommissioning

  • Site remediation

  • Radioactive waste management.

The plan is deficient in many respects and the DOB will need to get ahead of the many thorny problems that Holtec’s approach raises. Board members must have adequate time to study these issues thoroughly, and the DOB must submit its recommendations before PSC takes any action on it.

The PSC approved the license transfer subject to an agreement jointly negotiated by the state of New York, environmental organizations, Entergy (the former license holder) and Holtec.

Clearwater opposed the license transfer given Holtec’s problematic track record and lack of qualifications. While the joint agreement improves the prospects for a financially and environmentally responsible decommissioning process, it fails to adequately address many of our questions and concerns about Holtec’s plans. These include

  • Removal of spent fuel from the fuel pools less than 3 years before it has cooled sufficiently to move (especially high burn-up fuel, which requires 7 or more years of cooling)

  • The lack of rigorous onsite and offsite radiation monitoring needed to protect workers and the surrounding community

  • Superficial remediation of soils contaminated with radioactivity

  • No remediation of radioactivity leaking into the groundwater and the Hudson

  • Serious quality assurance, performance and safety problems with Holtec’s dry storage system for spent fuel

  • Holtec’s intention to ship high-level radioactive waste (which may include highly irradiated spent fuel) by barge down the Hudson, past New York City, to its consolidated interim storage facilities in New Mexico.

These and other issues related to Indian Point decommissioning raise serious safety concerns calling for diligent examination by the DOB. At the federal level, Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversight has been extremely lax, granting exemptions on request and effectively rubber stamping whatever Holtec proposed whether or not it violated existing regulation, or in some cases, existing law. These important issues need review by the DOB before Holtec resolves them on its own terms. We call on the PSC to empanel the DOB now and convene its first meeting quickly.

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