Thanks to Keith for forwarding this article on to me. In the fight against nuclear energy the more eyes and ears out there the better. Artichoke Annie
Experts: Leaks could turn New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant into Chernobyl-like disaster
Tuesday, October 18th 2011, 4:00 AM
Don Emmert/AFP/Getty
The Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant on the banks of the Hudson River in Buchanan, N.Y.
Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty
A Greenpeace activist's meter measures sky-high levels of radiation outside the fourth reactor at the former Chernobyl Nuclear power plant in Belarus this spring.
Manhattan and the Bronx would be uninhabitable if the accident-prone Indian Point nuke plant suffered a Chernobyl-like disaster, an environmental group charged Monday.
A massive radiation release similar to the 1986 catastrophe in Ukraine could also contaminate Brooklyn and chunks of Queens and Staten Island, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"The more you learn about Indian Point, the more you know it must close," said Robert Kennedy Jr., a senior attorney at NRDC. "It's too old, it's near too many people, and it's just too vulnerable to fire, earthquake and attack."
"The more you learn about Indian Point, the more you know it must close," said Robert Kennedy Jr., a senior attorney at NRDC. "It's too old, it's near too many people, and it's just too vulnerable to fire, earthquake and attack."
The doomsday scenario comes as political titans clash over the aging plant 24miles north of the city, which sits on an earthquake fault, and has been hit by radiation leaks and at least two fires since 2007.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani debuted a series of TV and print ads last week vouching for its safety and seeking to boost its public image - even as Gov. Cuomo crusades to padlock the plant, saying it poses a threat to public safety.
At issue is whether the feds should grant a 20-year renewal to New Orleans-based Entergy, the owner of Indian Point, which runs two active reactors whose operating licenses expire in 2013 and 2015.
Fueling the debate is the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan - and sparked fears a similar disaster at the Hudson River plant could make parts of New York unlivable.
"An accident at an Indian Point reactor on the scale of the recent catastrophe in Japan could cause a swath of land down to the George Washington Bridge to be uninhabitable for generations due to radiation contamination," NRDC says.
It could also require the sheltering or evacuation of up to 5.6 million New Yorkers, the report says.
Entergy vigorously defends its safety record and says its disaster planning is unparalleled.
The company said an earthquake paired with a tsunami couldn't happen at upriver Indian Point. It also said the primitive graphite reactor at Chernobyl had nothing in common with the multiple safeguards deployed at Indian Point.
"It's not valid to simply cut and paste from events that occurred somewhere else in the world and say they could happen here," said Entergy spokesman James Steets.
dfeiden@nydailynews.com
I was just explaining this to my mother this morning. I told her about the spent pools and the shaky management. We live 37 miles from Indian Point. I wish they'd close it AND deal with the spent fuel. We'd all breathe more easily. We actually have an evacuation plan. Why should we all be in danger because some idiots want to make money while cutting corners? And it just goes on and on. We've been trying to shut it down for decades.
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