http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Talk-on-safety-at-Indian-Point-2273433.php
Talk on safety at Indian Point
Lisa Chamof
GREENWICH -- Could the same nuclear crisis triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan be repeated in southern Fairfield County?
Edwin Lyman, an expert on nuclear plant design, said he thinks so.
At a panel discussion Wednesday night at Town Hall, Lyman, a senior scientist in the Global Security Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said there is little truth to the claims that power plants like Indian Point in New York are designed better than the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. After the 9.0-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami, the cooling systems for the reactors at Fukushima failed, leading to radiation leaks.
For example, Lyman said, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, equipment was eventually required to protect the reactors in the event a plane crashed into them. That equipment, he said, wasn't designed to withstand an earthquake, which could affect multiple parts of the plant at once.
"If you look at all the mechanisms the Japanese tried, and you look at what we have here, there's no advantage at this point," Lyman said.
The discussion, presented by the League of Women Voters of Greenwich, comes as a battle is shaping up over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's renewal of the license for Indian Point, located roughly 20 miles from Greenwich.
James Steets, director of communications for Entergy Nuclear, which owns and operates Indian Point, defended the plant's safety in front of the few dozen people who filled the room.
Steets said there is the potential for an earthquake in the area, but not of the magnitude that occurred in Japan. He also noted it wasn't the earthquake that affected Fukushima, but the fact that the massive tsunami took out electrical power to important safety equipment.
"But that caused us to look at our capabilities again," Steets said. "We are designed for earthquakes 100 times greater than have ever been felt in the area. We are prepared for flooding twice the elevation of any flooding that has ever occurred near Indian Point."
Phillip Musegaas, an Indian Point analyst for Riverkeeper, a clean water advocacy organization, and a lawyer representing Riverkeeper during the Indian Point license renewal process, said the plant has a history of safety problems. In the last 10 years, radioactive water has leaked into the Hudson River, and there have been two incidents when transformers exploded.
Last year, according to reports, 600,000 gallons of radioactive steam escaped from the nuclear plant through an open valve and drifted into nearby neighborhoods.
"The risk of running a variable facility that we feel hasn't been well maintained is a real risk," Musegaas said.
Musegaas also addressed the issue of evacuating the densely populated area where Indian Point is located, with roads that are filled with traffic during a normal rush hour. He noted that Fukushima is located in a rural area, without millions of people located in small area, as is the case here.
"The tsunami killed most of the people in the area," Musegaas said. "There were not a lot of people left to evacuate."
Steets said he lives in the area, and knows what traffic is like, but believes Indian Point has a "responsible emergency response plan that can get information to people and get people out of harm's way."
"I haven't seen a scenario, even observing what took place in Japan, that would prevent people from getting out of an area," he said.
During the question-and-answer session, with people submitting questions written on index cards, someone asked about how Greenwich residents would be compensated for their real estate losses if a nuclear disaster struck.
"The industry has insurance, which is a matter of law, for liability," Steets said, but he noted he didn't know the exact numbers.
Lyman said he did know. Every reactor is required to carry a $200 million policy, and after an accident, every reactor has to put money into a pool of money totaling roughly $10 billion to cover claims for radiation exposure.
"Fukushima's already well over that," Lyman said, "and that was an agricultural area."
And finally.... not having seen the release of my previous posts, I must assume a stifing hand at work, and present you with my jeremiad.
Enjoy !
There is more than a deepwater bend at "World's End" on the Hudson. There is also an invisible demographic border. At Peekskill bay, the downscale post industrial living quarters of African Americans, newly-arrived Central Americans and original colonial blue collars cluster on the hillside leading to riverfont green, with only a few token caucasian arivistes in the "artists studios" along Park Street. The diverse, economically satisfied blue collar folks of Peekskill hardly ever think anything at all about the electricity plant down below, lighting their apartments, powering their ethnic festivals, giving extraordinary fireworks shows every now & again. ( Except maybe to get a job there). These are people who accept the world as it is, do not want change, except maybe their own closer integration into the real, functioning, world from which they've been previously barred.
It is an insult to their pride, their industriousness, their beauty , positivity & vivaciousness to compare them to the recent Occupy Wallstreet miscreants, but the comparison needs to be drawn.
While the Peekskill populace goes on its hardworking way, making families, making their own future-- and thus OUR futures-- others misled by odd philosophy, crass agendists and their own lack of compass seem attracted to "social change" as almost an object of worship. The OWS crowd never even discerned what change they desired, nevertheless, they injured their own health & public profile demanding it. Foolish? Of course. They humiliated themselves defecating like animals in public before disbanding for lack of purpose. It is an amazing testament to American tolerance, but other than that a sickening symptom of a ruined elitist philosophy.
In a similar manner, those who would be "fashionable" oppose a necessary local electricity provider, a provider not so important to people in Garrison , with top NYC jobs, trust funds, and real estate
keeping them afloat to seek change for its own sake, but nevertheless essential for the living of lives tied to Malls, box stores, small businesses, and small manufacturing entities in the Hudson Valley, all of which could not survive with erratic or overpriced energy.
Look within yourself. Is there indeed a hidden class agenda driving your erstwhile "Nuclear Fears"? Do you indeed believe that Garrison real estate prices can only suffer, were blue collar entities like Peekskill & Poughkeepsie to thrive? Are you more comfortable without jobs for those you would hate to see walking your elite sidewalks with you? Can this all be neatly tied up, hidden, and shipped out as a bogus "Clean Energy" campaign.... when Indian Point is ALREADY the cleanest energy available?
It would be immoral of you not to ask yourself,.... would it not?
Posted by: H. Springer | February 10, 2012 at 10:20 AM