Entergy, US Nuclear Industry Wary Of HBO Double Feature
Kristen McNamara
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
August 20, 2004

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Three years after the September 11 terrorist attacks reignited fears about the vulnerability of nuclear reactors, Home Box Office is poised to show a documentary about a controversial plant just north of New York City.

"Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable" was developed by the independent company co-owned by Rory Kennedy, sister of Robert Kennedy Jr. He's a staff and board member of Riverkeeper, an environmental organization seeking to shut the twin reactors Entergy Corp. (ETR) operates 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan.

"The documentary questions the condition of the facility, the fitness of the security force, and the diligence of our government's oversight," HBO said in a press release Thursday. It also "investigates why Indian Point has become such a flashpoint following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

Entergy and industry groups haven't seen the film, but they are concerned it will take a strong antinuclear stance. They worry HBO is amplifying that message by scheduling the film to premier Sept. 9, just ahead of the anniversary of the attacks. It will be shown along with a documentary on the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster's effects on local residents. That documentary, "Chernobyl Heart," was directed by Maryann De Leo and won an Oscar.

An HBO spokeswoman said the pay-cable channel doesn't have a political agenda. It took advantage of a rare opportunity to show two different films about a related subject and scheduled them for early September based on their availability and that of their directors, she said.

Entergy Sits Out

Entergy declined to participate in the documentary about its plant because it believed Kennedy would push her brother's anti-Indian Point position, said Larry Gottlieb, director of communications for subsidiary Entergy Nuclear Northeast.

"We knew this was going to be a hatchet job," he said. "If we actively participated, we would be putting the blade on the guillotine."

Indian Point's vulnerability to a terrorist attack came under heightened scrutiny after one of the hijacked planes flew over the plant on its way to the World Trade Center three years ago. Opponents worry about the plant's proximity to the densely populated New York metropolitan area.

Citizens' groups and local lawmakers have called for the facility to be closed, and the counties closest to it refused last year to ratify a plan for evacuating the area in an emergency. That led New York state to reject the evacuation plan, too.

But the Federal Emergency Management Agency upheld the plan as sufficient, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed.

Indian Point and other reactors have stepped up security since the attacks, putting government-ordered measures in place aimed at further restricting physical access to the plants. Critics, however, fear they can't defend themselves against the type of attacks September 11 showed terrorists are capable of.

In early 2002, Entergy launched an advertising campaign to counter the growing pressure to shut the plant. The ads said closing the 2,000-megawatt facility would increase the likelihood of power shortages during periods of high demand and cause prices to jump - an argument New York's power grid operator supported.

Entergy purchased Unit 2 at Indian Point from Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) in 2001, inheriting a legacy of safety problems and poor performance that stemmed from an unexpected shutdown in August 1999 and a February 2000 steam generator tube failure that released a small amount of radioactive steam into the atmosphere.

Unit 3, which the company bought in 2000 from the New York Power Authority, has a better track record. Unit 1 is shut.

Kennedy Connection

HBO said the documentary features representatives from all sides of the Indian Point debate, including the head of the NRC, the former director of FEMA, the executive director of Riverkeeper, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., author Al Franken and Robert Kennedy Jr.

An executive from the Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents the industry, was also interviewed, though the group shared some of Entergy's misgivings, said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the institute.

"Obviously given the relationship between the two Kennedys, we voiced our concerns right from the outset," Kerekes said. "Notwithstanding that, we felt it was tremendously important to have some sort of voice in this."

Robert Thompson, professor of media and pop culture at Syracuse University and head of the university's Center for the Study of Popular Television, said documentaries can take a point of view and aren't obliged to present both sides of an argument. Some viewers, however, can come away thinking they've learned all there is to know about nuclear reactors, he said.

HBO could be particularly influential in reviving the push to shut Indian Point. The channel, which has a reputation for high-quality programming, draws an audience of lots of "movers and shakers," Thompson said.

"Whenever you expose a significant-sized audience, which HBO is capable of getting, especially when it might include people with the wherewithal and desire to express civic power, that will go into the overall equation and calculus of what public opinion is," he said.

Media coverage of the film could also increase viewership, as was the case with Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, Thompson said.

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