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News Archive 2003 A-Plant's Foes
Challenge U.S. on Safety Plan
LYDIA POLGREEN
The New York Times
November 7, 2003
WHITE PLAINS, Nov. 6 — Opponents of the Indian Point
nuclear power plant filed an administrative appeal on Thursday
seeking to overturn federal approval of plans to protect residents
near the plant's two reactors in case of an emergency.
The appeal, which was filed by Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky
and was signed by nearly 50 local, state and federal officials,
is the final step before opponents can file a lawsuit against
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which approved the
hotly disputed plan in the summer. Opponents claim the plan
will not adequately protect residents from a radiation release
or other catastrophe at Indian Point.
The appeal comes as opponents of the plant reassess their
efforts to shut down the twin reactors, which sit on the Hudson
River about 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan in Westchester
County.
"We are redrawing the battle on a bunch of fronts,"
Mr. Brodsky said. "We have won the battle for public
opinion, won the support of the county and state governments
and now we are up against a faceless federal bureaucracy."
Many local officials and environmental groups argued that
the emergency plan would not adequately protect residents,
but the emergency management agency approved the plan, and
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission swiftly concurred.
A spokesman for Indian Point said yesterday that the questions
raised by opponents of the plant about the emergency plan
had been addressed.
"This is just another tired effort to keep the ball
alive," said Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, the
company that owns the plant. "Really, what they ought
to be doing is ensuring themselves of a reliable electrical
supply instead of trying to remove electrical supply."
Alex Matthiessen, executive director of the environmental
group Riverkeeper, said the strategy was to press on every
front and to identify problems with the plant in an effort
to kill it with a thousand cuts.
"Every time Indian Point gets targeted or highlighted
as a nuclear power plant with problems, it adds more to a
case we have already built," Mr. Matthiessen said, "which
is that this plant is a dangerous facility and it is only
a matter of time before something terrible happens."
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Congressional representatives
have called for hearings into the process the emergency management
agency and the regulatory commission used in approving the
plan, and Representative Eliot L. Engel, who represents a
district near Indian Point, sponsored legislation passed by
the House this week to require the Coast Guard to assess the
plant's vulnerability to a water attack.
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