Indian Point Nuclear Reactor Will Close for Maintenance
By WINNIE HU
The New York Times
October 25, 2002

BUCHANAN, N.Y., Oct. 25 - The Indian Point 2 nuclear plant will shut down for about a month, beginning this weekend, as workers replace about one-third of the uranium fuel rods in the reactor core, the plant's owner said today.

The shutdown, known as a refueling outage, is a routine process that takes place every two years. But it has come under particular scrutiny this year because of heightened safety concerns about nuclear plants since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the groundswell of opposition to Indian Point among local officials and New York area residents.

The refueling shutdown at Indian Point 2 will also be the first one under its new owner, the Entergy Corporation, which took over the troubled plant in September 2001 from Consolidated Edison. Indian Point 2 had been plagued by safety lapses in recent years, including a February 2000 radioactive leak that shut down the plant for nearly a year.

But Entergy officials say the plant has made recent improvements in safety and efficiency. According to Indian Point's records, human errors at the plant have dropped by two-thirds, to 0.35 errors per 10,000 work hours, since Entergy took over. A backlog of work orders for equipment repairs has dwindled to fewer than 130, from more than 560 a year ago, they said.

Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, said Indian Point workers planned to refuel the reactor in about 30 days, or less than half the 72 days that it took in late 1997 and early 1998, the shortest refueling outage to date at the plant.

Mr. Steets said the refueling process would be accomplished quickly this year because of better planning and Entergy's commitment of additional workers and resources to improve "communications, teamwork and accountability" among Indian Point workers.

"I think it's another opportunity for Entergy to show what it brings to the Indian Point plants," he said.

Entergy also owns Indian Point 3, the other active reactor at the site, and completed a similar refueling process there in 27 days in 2001, compared with 41 days in 1999 under the previous owner, the New York Power Authority.

At a time of energy deregulation and increased competition, nuclear plants across the country have shaved time off their refueling outages in a bid to become more profitable. In the industry, the average time for such shutdowns is 37 days for pressurized water reactors like the ones at Indian Point, according to a 2000 report by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees the plants.

Neil A. Sheehan, a spokesman for the nuclear agency, said its resident inspectors at Indian Point, along with additional staff members from its regional and national offices, would closely monitor the refueling.

"We ratchet up our level of inspection during an outage because it is a period of very intense activity," he said. "If they don't carefully execute things, they can have problems."

The spent fuel rods will be submerged in a cooling pool, which stores the radioactive fuel at the plant until it can be transferred to a permanent repository, which does not yet exist.

Several critics of Indian Point said today that they remained concerned about not just the refueling process, but also about the accumulation of more spent fuel at the site. They contend that spent fuel is particularly vulnerable to terrorist attack because it is stored in cooling pools outside the containment building.

"The bigger issue is that the spent fuel at the facility continues to build," said Michael B. Kaplowitz, a Westchester legislator who is calling for closing Indian Point. "As long as Indian Point remains open and active, we continue to layer on more spent fuel."

During the shutdown, Mr. Steets said, workers will inspect the reactor vessel head for corrosion, which could lead to a leak. They will also clean the steam generators, upgrade equipment for handling the reactor fuel and perform other maintenance tasks, he said.

The Indian Point plants generate up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity for homes, businesses and public buildings in Westchester County and New York City. While Indian Point 2 is shut down, the electricity output at Indian Point will fall by half. A megawatt is enough to power about 1,000 average homes.

Carol Murphy, a spokeswoman for the New York Independent System Operator, which runs the power grid, said she did not expect any problems because demand was low at this time of year. "Now is a good time for them to be doing maintenance," she said.

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