Re: Plan to restart Indian Point 2 opposed

["Jim Hardeman" <Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us>]

Matt -

I'm not sure that even that would work ... take a look at the following Reuters article from yesterday ... particularly to Rep. Gilman's remarks.

Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us 

========

Ruling due in days on restarting Con Ed nuke plant 
 
 
Updated 11:34 AM ET June 26, 2000 
By Scott DiSavino
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will rule by the end of the month on whether Consolidated Edison Inc. can restart its idled Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor over the strong opposition of nearby residents.

At a public meeting Sunday attended by four members of Congress, the NRC said it would closely scrutinize Con Ed's restart plan following a radioactive steam leak in February.

The NRC told a crowd of about 120 concerned citizens, most of them opposed to nuclear power generation, that the agency was concerned only about the New York plant's safety and would not allow Con Ed to restart the reactor unless it found the plant's steam generators were safe.

The plant, located 35 miles north of New York City on the shores of the Hudson River in Buchanan, N.Y., has been off-line since Feb. 15 when a tube in one of the unit's four steam generators cracked, leaking radioactive water in the plant.

A steam generator, which stands about 70 feet tall and 40 feet wide, contains thousands of one-inch tubes carrying boiling radioactive water, under heavy pressure from the reactor core, to heat nonradioactive water into the steam used to turn the plant's turbine and generate electricity.

Con Ed, which has repaired the damaged tubes and could potentially start the plant within a week, said the repairs would enable the unit to operate safely for the summer. It plans to shut the plant by year-end to replace the generators.

It will take the NRC until about June 30 to evaluate the company's filings and decide whether to give a green light.

The NRC considered Sunday's informational meeting, held at the Town Hall in Cortlandt, N.Y., near the Indian Point station, important enough to delay it for a week from June 19 to allow four members of Congress from New York to attend.

All four lawmakers -- Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Nita Lowey, both Democrats, and Republican Reps. Ben Gilman and Sue Kelly -- pressed the NRC and Con Ed to replace the steam generators before restarting the reactor.

Asked about possible shortages in New York City without Indian Point 2 on line, Gilman told Reuters, "The people would rather deal with power outages than a nuclear disaster."

Con Ed spokesman James O'Toole told Reuters there were adequate supplies of electricity without Indian Point 2.

However, "It would be nice to have the plant that supplies about 10 percent of New York City's power available for the summer," said another Con Ed executive at the meeting.

The NRC said it was looking at Con Ed's paperwork "far more intensely" than ever due to past agency mistakes in okaying an earlier Con Ed assessment.

In 1997, the last time Con Ed inspected the steam generators before the tube breach in February, the NRC allowed the plant to resume operations after signing off on what it later termed an incomplete assessment.

Because of its acknowledged earlier failure, the NRC has now set up two groups to help evaluate Con Ed's paperwork: One team to conduct a safety review and a second team to provide an independent review of the first.

In addition to leading to an internal investigation within the NRC, the U.S. Inspector General's office has opened an investigation against the agency to determine how the NRC accepted Con Ed's faulty 1997 assessment.

Officials at Con Ed have said the company did the best it could to inspect the steam generators in 1997 with the equipment available at that time.

However, an NRC engineer at Sunday's meeting, Jack Strosnider, said hairline cracks in the tube that ultimately failed could have been detected in 1997 if Con Ed had looked harder for them, though the testing met 1997 standards.

Indian Point 2 will remain under close NRC scrutiny in any case as it was named one of only two U.S. nuclear units deemed an "agency focus plant" under new standards aimed at best using limited agency resources. 

 
>>> WILLIAM7@war.wyeth.com 6/27/2000 6:44:57 >>>
It is a shame that there remains distrust between the NRC, utility, and the public.

Maybe ConEd should roll their brown outs in Westchester Cty and not New York City.  Is that what it would take the local activists to realize that the station should run through the summer and replace generators in the fall...only after they have met all regulatory requirements for restart, of course?


Matt Williamson


my opinions only

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