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News Archive 2003 FEMA to certify
Indian Point emergency plans
By DEVLIN BARRETT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
July 25, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials will recertify
emergency plans for the area around the Indian Point nuclear
power station, effectively overriding opposition from local
officials who felt evacuation procedures wouldn't protect
residents from radiation in a terrorist attack.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to announce
the decision as early as this afternoon, said government sources,
speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The decision caps months of standoffs and negotiations among
local, state, and federal authorities over terrorism concerns
surrounding the plant in Buchanan, N.Y., 35 miles north of
midtown Manhattan.
Executives in the four counties closest to Indian Point —
Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Putnam — refused to
recertify the existing evacuation plans, prompting New York
state to do the same.
FEMA determined it did not need the counties' paperwork because
it had worked closely with local authorities to craft the
evacuation plan, said a source familiar with the decision.
Earlier, FEMA officials had warned that without proper submissions
from local authorities, they might have to notify the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission they could not give "reasonable
assurance" existing emergency plans adequately protect
residents. That move could have led to the plant's closure.
The nuclear power plant has always faced some opposition
from local groups, but the shutdown movement gained momentum
after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. One of the jetliners
hijacked by terrorists that day flew over Indian Point on
its way to the World Trade Center.
Since then, dozens of municipalities and more than 200 elected
officials in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have endorsed
efforts to close Indian Point.
NRC officials have repeatedly insisted the design and safety
enhancements made since Sept. 11, 2001, are more than adequate
to deter or resist a terrorist attack.
But a January review by James Lee Witt, a former FEMA director
now working as a private consultant, found the site's evacuation
plans did not properly address the possible effects of a terrorist
attack.
A key issue for many critics of FEMA and the NRC is the practical
effect of any evacuation order on a frightened civilian population.
Some lawmakers fear that if there were a direct attack on
the facility, residents would flood the area's roadways, causing
massive delays and hampering evacuation and rescue efforts.
State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and others have argued
that "shadow evacuation" — when people outside
the emergency zone decide to leave the area as well —
would worsen the problem.
A recent report commissioned by the plant's owner found that
it would take several hours longer than previously thought
— about 10 hours — to evacuate the 10-mile zone
around the plant.
As part of the certification process, FEMA had pushed local
authorities to provide up-to-date plans for events like school
evacuations. But Westchester and Rockland counties, citing
the Witt report, refused to supply the requested documents
by the May 2 deadline, leaving the agency in an awkward position.
Putnam and Orange counties provided some documents but never
officially signed off on the plans.
In the past, the NRC has relied on word from FEMA that an
adequate emergency plan is in place.
The NRC regulates nuclear power plants but does not own or
operate Indian Point. The agency has the power — never
used — to shut down a plant for an inadequate emergency
plan.
Indian Point provides 5.3 percent of the state's generation
capacity, more than 1,500 jobs and millions of dollars in
tax payments.
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