Indian Point Battle Lines Are Redrawn
By WINNIE HU
The New York Times
February 1, 2003

ALBANY, Jan. 31 — The state's decision this week not to approve the emergency plan for the area around the Indian Point nuclear complex has set in motion what is likely to be a long and complicated legal battle over the plant's future.

In the process, the tumultuous debate over whether to close the plant in Buchanan, about 40 miles north of Manhattan, will shift from the Hudson Valley and Albany to Washington, where federal agencies will have to step into the fray.

On Thursday, Edward F. Jacoby Jr., the director of the state's Emergency Management Office, sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying that state officials would not be able to approve Indian Point's emergency plan this year — normally a routine exercise — by the Jan. 31 deadline.

Neither Mr. Jacoby nor Gov. George E. Pataki offered an opinion on the merits of the plan. The letter simply said that the state could not act because the four counties surrounding Indian Point — Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Putnam — had refused to submit checklists and other required information related to the emergency planning because of safety concerns.

The state's action passes the issue to FEMA, which oversees emergency planning around nuclear plants. The agency is expected to decide next month if Indian Point's emergency plan provides "reasonable assurance" that the public's health and safety will be protected in the event of a nuclear accident.

If the agency decides the plan is inadequate, Indian Point's owner, the Entergy Corporation, and state and county officials will have four months to correct the problems. If they do not, FEMA officials can withdraw their approval. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would then start its own four-month review of the emergency plan. At the end of that period, the commission could order Indian Point to close.

FEMA officials have rarely withdrawn approval of nuclear emergency plans, but in the 1980's they did so twice at Indian Point and once at the Beaver Valley nuclear plant in western Pennsylvania.

N.R.C. officials said they had worked with Indian Point's previous owners, Consolidated Edison and the New York Power Authority, to provide bus drivers and to train utility workers to take over emergency roles if necessary, and to develop an alternative plan for Rockland County, which had refused to participate in emergency drills.

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the N.R.C., said that every nuclear plant site that has come under that four-month review, including Indian Point, eventually fixed its problems. The N.R.C. has never permanently closed a nuclear plant, although it did order a temporary shutdown of the Peach Bottom nuclear plant in York County, Pa., in the mid-1980's after several control room operators were found to be sleeping on duty.

"It usually doesn't get to that point," Mr. Sheehan said, "because those issues are dealt with in the early stages. There are still numerous steps that would have to occur here before there's any serious discussion of a shutdown order."

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, opposition to Indian Point has been fueled by widespread fears that the plant could become a terrorist target. In response, Governor Pataki hired a consultant, James Lee Witt, a former director of FEMA, to evaluate the safety of the communities near nuclear plants. Mr. Witt's report, released this month, sharply criticized emergency planning.

Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, said that local concerns about the emergency plan had been clouded by politics. He said the utility stood by the emergency plan and welcomed feedback from federal nuclear and emergency experts.

In the meantime, opponents of Indian Point were already calling meetings today to plan the next move. Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky said, "What Pataki did — in whatever mealy mouthed way — was a tremendous additional weapon in our legal arsenal."

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