Wedgewire Vs. Cooling Tower Update

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

In April 2010, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation recommended its governing board deny Indian Point's Water Quality Certification, one of the key components Entergy needs to get the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew its operating license for the nuclear power facility. 

Since then, each side has been preparing for hearings scheduled for June 14. The key point of contention is how to cool the reactors and provide the water necessary for steam to turn the turbines that create electricity.  

Currently, Indian Point uses an open system in which Hudson River water is pumped in through a cooling water intake structure equipped with a traveling water screen system. The cycle ends with heated water returned back into the Hudson. 

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.

However, Indian Point officials say the towers would create new and different pollution problems, as well as adding massive structures along the Hudson shoreline.

“The problem with the closed cycle cooling system is it requires large cooling towers, one for each unit," said spokesman Jerry Nappi. "They would be the size of Yankee Stadium—creating an eyesore for the community—and would create air particulate pollution problem. The cooling towers would emit sodium chloride from the salt in the Hudson and could be harmful to people’s health.”

Additionally, Indian Point lists cooling-tower issues related to local zoning issues, excavation, relocation of a major gas line, the potential for radiological underground contamination on site, and other challenges. 

"The wedgewire screen system would cost approximately $200 million and could be in place by 2017, whereas the cooling towers that would cost $1.5 billion and would need up to 15 years to complete," Nappi said.

The DEC accepts Riverkeeper’s and other environmental groups' position that the wedgewire screen system would reduce the destruction of organisms but not minimize the destruction with the best technology available—and that's what is required by NYSDEC policy regarding the water quality certification Indian Point needs for its license renewal with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Officials at Riverkeeper would not talk to Patch, saying they were too busy preparing the case and advised their positions can be found on its website http://www.riverkeeper.org .   

Linda Puglisi, Town of Cortlandt supervisor, requested a seat at the table and was granted a role as an intervenor to monitor the proceedings between the DEC and Entergy.

In January, about improvements to the hamlet, Puglisi said that town officials  disliked the cooling-tower option. However, she said in a recent interview, “We need more information. We are as concerned about the Hudson River as we are about the size of the cooling towers which could impact property values in the town.”

The issue goes before NYS Chief Administrative Law Judge James T. McClymonds in Albany starting June 14, 2011.