Buchanan: Chernobyl on the Hudson (Indian Point Energy Center nickname)

The Indian Point Energy Center at Buchanan, New York, has frequently been called a “Chernobyl on the Hudson (River).” The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine had a disaster in 1986, and the city of Chernobyl was evacuated. Some critics have feared that a disaster at Indian Point could endanger New York City and its suburbs.
 
“Chernobyl on the Hudson” has been cited in print since at least 1993. A pamphlet with this title was published in 2003, and a YouTube video with this title was made in 2016.
 
The Indian Point Energy Center has also been called “Fukushima on the Hudson.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Indian Point Energy Center
Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) is a three-unit nuclear power plant station located in Buchanan, New York just south of Peekskill. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 36 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. The plant generates over 2,000 megawatts (MWe) of electrical power. For reference, the record peak energy consumption of New York City and Westchester County (The Con Edison Service Territory) was set during a seven-day heat wave on July 19, 2013 at 13,322 megawatts. Electrical energy consumption varies greatly with time of day and season.
 
The plant is owned and operated by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, and includes two operating Westinghouse pressurized water reactors – designated “Indian Point 2” and “Indian Point 3” –which Entergy bought from Consolidated Edison and the New York Power Authority respectively. The facility also contains the permanently shut-down Indian Point Unit 1 reactor. As of 2015, the number of permanent jobs at the Buchanan plant is approximately 1,000.
 
The original 40-year operating licenses for units 2 and 3 expired in September 2013 and December 2015, respectively. Entergy has applied for license extensions and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is moving toward granting a twenty-year extension for each reactor. Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, however, wants the units shut down at the end of their current license periods. As of midnight on September 28, 2013, Unit 2 has entered its “Period of Extended Operation” (PEO) until the NRC makes a final determination on its license renewal application.
 
Wikipedia: Chernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl (IPA /tʃɜːrˈnoʊbᵻl/; Ukrainian: Чорнобиль, pronounced [tʃɔrˈnɔbɪlʲ]; Russian: Чернобыль, pronounced [tɕɪrˈnobɨlʲ], Polish: Czarnobyl pronounced [tʂarˈnɔbɨl], Yiddish: טשערנאבל‎ pronounced [tʃɛrnɔbl]) is a city in the restricted Chernobyl Exclusion Zone situated in Ivankiv Raion of northern Kiev Oblast, Ukraine near the border with Belarus. The city was the administrative center of Chernobyl Raion (district) from 1923 until it was disestablished in 1988. The city currently has 704 inhabitants.
 
The city was evacuated in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located 14.5 kilometres (9.0 mi) north-northwest, the most disastrous single nuclear event in history. The power plant was within Chernobyl Raion, but the city was not the residence of the power plant workers. When the power plant was under construction, Pripyat, a city larger and closer to the power plant, had been built as home for the power plant workers.
       
Google Groups: soc.culture.usa
Part 2, An Eventual Nuclear Power Plant Blow-Out Will Poison All Americans
John DiNardo
12/18/93
(...)
Well, let’s bring it back home again. In Peekskill, New York—in Westchester, we have our own little Chernobyl-on-the-Hudson called Indian Point. The only difference is that Indian Point is perhaps the most dangerous nuclear reactor on the planet Earth. If you take a look at the full extent of what could happen in case of a major accident, you have to look at a computer cull[?] called Crack Two, which states that if Unit Three had a major Class 9 nuclear accident, property damage would be three hundred and fourteen billion dollars. That is an unimaginable amount of money.
 
26 June 2000, The Journal News (White Plains NY), “Plan to restart nike plant strongly opposed by residents, politicians” by David Novich, pg. A1:
CORTLANDT -Angry residents and members of the state’s congressional delegation told federal regulators yesterday that Indian Point 2 should not reopen until the outdated and unsafe steam generators are replaced with new equipment.
(...)
’‘The steam generator is a symptom of a greater problem, ‘’ said Michelle Riddell, a New Paltz resident and co-president of Safe Legacy, a safe energy group. ‘’ That we have a Chernobyl on the Hudson. What technology has an evacuation plan for five counties? ‘’
 
16 February 2003, Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, “Calls for plant closure on the rise” by Larry Fish, pg. A2:
Now the state and the four counties surrounding the plant have declined to sign off on the required evacuation plan. The question is whether FEMA - Witt’s old agency - will certify a plan that would enable the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to renew Indian Point’s license.
 
So far, FEMA hasn’t committed itself.
 
“FEMA is sort of trying to pass the buck to the NRC, and the NRC is trying to pass it back to FEMA,” said Ken Gale, a longtime Indian Point opponent and author of a pamphlet calling it “Chernobyl-on-the-Hudson.”
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Chernobyl on the Hudson? : the health and economic impacts of a terrorist attack at the Indian Point nuclear plant
Author: Edwin S Lyman; Union of Concerned Scientists.; RiverKeeper, Inc.
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : UCSUSA, 2004.
Edition/Format:   eBook : Document : English
   
Twitter
Theresa Marinez
‏@greenthoughtbox
#IndianPoint #Nuclear reactor: CHERNOBYL-ON-THE-HUDSON http://bit.ly/aGVIVL #NativeAmerican #indigenous #NDNZ #green #Entergy #eco #p2
5:19 PM - 8 Nov 2010
   
Daily News (New York, NY)
Regulators say Indian Point nuclear plant is safe, but can Chernobyl-on-the-Hudson happen?
By Michael Daly
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 4:00 AM
Gaze up the Hudson River and hope, hope, hope our regulators are right.
 
Hope they could not possibly be as wrong as the regulators in Japan who said their nuclear reactors could withstand any calamity.
 
Hope we never, ever have an out-of-control reactor just 35 miles north - a Chernobyl-on-the-Hudson.
 
We are assured the Indian Point nuclear plant, which has had its share of problems, is designed to shrug off an earthquake under a magnitude 6.1. That’s a bit above the most powerful one on record in New York - a 5.25 way back in 1884.
     
RT
Indian Point plant leak sparks concern over ‘Chernobyl on the Hudson’
Published time: 16 Feb, 2016 02:45
News of the tritium water leak at the Indian Point nuclear power plant has rekindled concerns about the 40-year-old plant among the local residents, public health experts and environmentalists.
 
Situated on the Hudson River, 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City, Indian Point serves the electricity needs of around 2 million people. Its two working reactors have operated since 1974 and 1976, respectively.
 
Last month, crews preparing one of the reactors for refueling accidentally spilled some of the water containing the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium, causing a massive radiation spike in groundwater monitoring wells. Entergy, the Louisiana-based company that owns the plant, chalked up the readings to “fluctuations that can be expected as the material migrates.”
 
YouTube
Chernobyl On The Hudson
The Alex Jones Channel
Published on Feb 23, 2016
It has been nicknamed Chernobyl on the Hudson. Lying just 34 miles north of New York City’s Central Park, the Indian Point Energy Center has been leaking the radioactive material known as tritium into the groundwater. On February 6, 2016 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo finally alerted the public as to the potential catastrophe. Better late than never? Potential nuclear disasters occurring at the Indian Point Energy Center now managed by the Louisiana based Entergy Corporation have been ongoing since 1973.
 
Obviously, Indian Point could potentially be a repeat of the level 7 Fukushima Daiichi disaster if a nuclear meltdown occurs due to a hurricane or other natural event leading to equipment failures. However, a similar disaster would require the evacuation of 5.6 million people and render Manhattan a no go zone for decades. In 2004, a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists estimated as many as 44,000 near-term deaths from acute radiation syndrome and as many as 518,000 long-term cancer deaths could occur in people within 50 miles of Indian Point in the event of a severe accident. Potential disaster models reveal the Indian Point plume could reach Chernobyl mass event levels nine times the radiation released at Fukushima.