Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant to Close in 2021

Governor Cuomo announced today that Indian Point Nuclear Power Plan will close in 2021. The plant produces 2,000 megawatts of electrical power, or the equivalent of a quarter of the power used in New York City and Westchester County. Cuomo cited safety concerns, saying, "For 15 years, I have been deeply concerned by the continuing safety violations at Indian Point, especially given its location in the largest and most densely populated metropolitan region in the country." He said that the state is fully prepared to replace the power generated by the plant at a negligible cost to ratepayers."

The two reactors at Indian Point started producing power in 1974 and 1976 and since then there have been safety concerns. The environmental group Riverkeeper has called for the plant to be closed saying it has "suffered a spate of troublesome incidents, including the crippling of one reactor from radiation-damaged bolts, a radiation leak, transformer explosion and oil spill, water pump failure, electrical anomalies and the loss of power to several reactor control rods." In May 2015 a transformer explosion, fire and oil spill was the third major incident in eight years and in February 2016 there was a leak of radioactivity into the groundwater.

The NRC says that one of Indian Point's reactors has the highest risk of earthquake damage of all the reactors in the country and Riverkeeper also says the plant is vulnerable to terrorism and due to the population density near the plant, the evacuation plan is unworkable.

Cuomo says that by 2021 New York will be able to make up the energy loss caused by the plant closing, however County Executive Rob Astorino questioned whether energy costs would go up even further. Ina press conference on Monday, Astorino said that he had not been informed that Entergy, who owns the plant, had been in discussion with Governor Cuomo and said the decision would cause the loss of 1,000 jobs and revenue losses to the Village of Buchanan, the town of Corlandt and Westchester County.

He said the governor's decision would cause "economic chaos," and said "ratepayers and property taxpayers will pay for this." According to Astorino, Westchester residents already pay the highest energy bills on the U.S. Mainland, and he feared that the plant closing will make rates go up even more. Sparring with Democratic Governor Cuomo, Astorino said that Cuomo bailed out upstate power plants but closed this one instead.

According to Astorino, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has consistently said that the plant is safe and Astorino called Indian Point a "political hot potato."

In a statement today, State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin agreed with the decision, but also cautioned against rising costs. She said, "Indian Point never should have been built near so many people. Safety has been and continues to be a concern.As plans for the plant's closing progress, we must have a blueprint in place to address a multitude of issues: reliability- making sure the lights in the areas Indian Point serves stay on, prioritizing clean energy, and an environmentally safe shutdown. Most importantly, as the highest taxed area in the state, with among the highest cost of electricity, finances must be in place to ensure that ratepayers do not bear the burden of this change and that communities are subsidized for their losses in taxes."