Community Corner

Indian Point Licensing Hearing to Resume

The second round of evidentiary hearings for the licensing of Indian Point nuclear plant will resume on December 10 at Tarrytown's Doubletree Hotel.

 

Editor's Note: The following comes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. To read more on Patch about the start of these hearings in October click here.

An evidentiary hearing on technical and environmental challenges to the pending Indian Point nuclear power plant license renewal application will resume at 9 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 10, in Tarrytown, N.Y. The application was submitted by Entergy Nuclear Operations Inc., the owner and operator of the plant, which is located in Buchanan (Westchester County), N.Y.

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Three judges of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP), the independent judicial arm of the NRC, are conducting the evidentiary hearing, which involves technical and environmental challenges to the application. The issues under review have been raised by three intervenors: the State of New York and two public interest organizations, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Inc. and Riverkeeper Inc. In addition to these intervenors, several governmental bodies have been granted status as interested governmental entities in the proceeding.

The Licensing Board from the ASLBP began hearing testimony on the contentions on Oct. 15. The board plans to hear additional testimony from Dec. 10 to 14. The location for the hearing is the DoubleTree Hotel, at 455 South Broadway in Tarrytown, N.Y. 

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Members of the public may enter the hearing room beginning at 8:30 a.m.

This is a formal adjudicative proceeding and therefore courtroom decorum will be observed throughout the hearing. The judges will ask questions of the witnesses who have been presented by the parties. Members of the public will not have an opportunity to speak during this hearing. Also, consistent with ASLBP rules on the conduct of such hearings, signs and placards will not be permitted in the hearing room and only accredited members of the media will be permitted to bring cameras or recording devices into the hearing room.

In addition, all members of the public will be screened by security before being granted entry into the hearing room. Accordingly, in order to facilitate entry, individuals wishing to attend the hearing are urged not to bring unnecessary items to the proceeding.

Entergy submitted its application for a 20-year extension of the Indian Point operating license on April 30, 2007. The initial 40-year operating licenses for Indian Point Units 2 and 3 are due to expire on Sept. 28, 2013, and Dec. 12, 2015, respectively. However, those initial licenses will remain in effect until the Commission has issued a final ruling on the renewal application.

Below is a brief summary of each of the issues that will be addressed at this hearing. These issues will be heard in the following order:

  1. Contention NYS-5: Challenges Entergy’s inspection and monitoring for corrosion or leaks in all buried systems, structures and components that convey or contain radioactive fluids.

  2. Contention NYS-6/7: Challenges Entergy’s Aging Management Program for non- environmentally qualified, inaccessible medium-voltage cables and wiring.

  3. Contention NYS-8: Challenges Entergy’s omission of an Aging Management Program for safety-related electrical transformers. 

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