Final Environmental Report on Indian Point Issued

Riverkeeper disagrees with the NRC’s conclusions regarding the impacts of operating Indian Point 20 more years. Our initial review reveals that the NRC’s finding that Indian Point should be relicensed, despite significant environmental impacts from its operation, is unsupported by the facts and raises serious questions about the agency’s willingness to objectively assess Indian Point’s true impact on the Hudson River.

Riverkeeper is conducting a detailed review of the 2,200+ page report, and will respond more fully once that is complete.

Riverkeeper remains concerned about various critical environmental issues:

• It appears that the NRC has continued to improperly minimize the devastating impacts Indian Point’s once-through cooling water intake system has on the fish and other aquatic organisms in the Hudson River. Even though the NRC properly acknowledged that the cumulative impacts of the plant to aquatic ecology are “large,” this did not seem to impact the NRC’s bottom line conclusion.
• NRC has reached its overall final conclusions while a review of the impacts of Indian Point on endangered species is still pending. In fact, the National Marine Fisheries Service recently expressed various concerns about the plant’s impact on the environment. Clearly, the NRC made conclusions without all the necessary facts.
• NRC’s assessment of the impacts of the accidental radioactive leakage from the plant remains deficient. This is a genuine concern that will be argued at an upcoming hearing, which the staff of the NRC have continued to ignore.

The NRC’s conclusion in this final environmental report comes on the heels of a recent transformer explosion that resulted in thousands of gallons of oil contaminating the surrounding environment and Hudson River. This latest report just confirms the NRC’s long-standing practice of refusing to properly recognize the significant impact that Indian Point has on the environment.