Fukushima and Indian Point
Channel: Kathy Reed
Date: 2014-03-04

Federal regulators and Entergy are ignoring lessons from the Fukushima disaster in Japan and relying on "entirely unrealistic and unreasonable" assumptions about what would happen if there was a severe accident at the Indian Point nuclear power plant, according to the state attorney general.

Those include determining the region could be decontaminated within 90 days, which, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office said, would require 1.5 million workers. It also said the cleanup's price tag in a worst-case scenario could top $1 trillion, seven times more than Entergy has estimatedIn November, three federal administrative judges said Entergy's calculations were sufficient and the NRC's approval of its method was reasonable. The issue was among several the state raised in 2012 as part of the review of Indian Point's license renewal application. The judges are part of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an independent arm of the NRC. They will ultimately recommend to the commission whether Indian Point should continue running for another 20 years.