Indian Point's Relicensing Turns on Contested Water Use Permit: Reports

The fight over how to use—and protect—Hudson River water sucked in by Indian Point to run its nuclear reactors continues. 

State administrative judges are now considering Entergy's appeal for a permit to build and operate an underwater screening system, a request turned down by the Department of Conservation in 2010.

Water Quality Certification is one of the key components Entergy needs to get the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew its operating license for the nuclear power facility.

Without it, Entergy can’t renew the plant’s licenses for another 20 years, Neil Sheehan, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman, told The Journal News/lohud.com. 

Sheehan told TJN/lohud.com reporter Mike Risinit that a final decision by the NRC in favor of the (renewal) application is contingent upon, among other things, successful resolution of the water discharge permit issue at the state level.

Critics such as Riverkeeper, a non-profit group advocating for the environmental protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, charge this process needlessly utilizes 2.5 billion gallons of water daily and kills a billion organisms a year.

Entergy's proposed solution is to install a cylindrical "wedgewire" screen system to replace the traveling water screen. It would slow down the pace of the water intake. This would allow organisms and larvae to avoid the impingement and entrainment (the processes that kill large and small organisms) against the intake structure.

Riverkeeper argues the best technology available is a closed cycle cooling tower system that would protect the wildlife of the Hudson. The towers would use much less water by recycling it and adding only to account for evaporation.