From : Lisa Rainwater <lisa@...>
Sent : Thursday, May 31, 2007 4:57 PM
To : <announce@...>, <indianpointsec@yahoogroups.com>
Subject : [announce] Tell NRC to Assess Emerg. Planning in Indian Point
Relicensing Process


(Please circulate widely!)

Emergency Planning Issues & the Relicensing of Indian Point

Current Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) relicensing criteria do not take
into account changes in population density, infrastructure, security risks, and
the onsite storage of high-level radioactive waste accumulating at nuclear
plants. A bi-partisan coalition of U.S. Representatives including John Hall
(D-NY), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Nita Lowey (D-NY), and
Christopher Shays (R-CT) has introduced legislation that would require the NRC
to address emergency planning issues at Indian Point before a decision is made
to grant a twenty-year license extension.

Tell the NRC that emergency planning issues need to be addressed in Indian
Point's relicensing process.

On April 30, 2007 Entergy submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) to extend Indian Point's operating licenses for another twenty
years. The two reactors are over thirty years old. As their safety problems
continue to escalate, there is still no workable emergency evacuation plan for
300,000 residents living within the 10-mile radius of Indian Point and no
evacuation plan for those living outside the 10-mile radius, including over 8.5
million NYC residents. Currently, the NRC does not take emergency planning
issues, increases in population density, and infrastructure into consideration
when determining whether a nuclear power plant should be relicensed.

The NRC is failing the public by not taking the findings of the Witt Report
into serious consideration in determining whether Indian Point should operate
for an additional 20 years. Let them know you want Witt’s concerns addressed
before it’s too late! Riverkeeper will hand-deliver a copy of your letter to
the NRC at the July 2007 public meeting on Indian Point’s relicensing
application.

Congress Takes Action

On May 3, 2007 Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) introduced the Nuclear Power
Licensing Reform Act of 2007. Joined by Congressman John Hall (D-NY) and
Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Lowey's legislation would require the NRC
to consider security vulnerabilities as well as the viability of evacuation
plans for the population living within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant. It
would also require that any license renewal meet the same criteria an initial
application would have to meet.

Specifically, it would:

• Make clear that any licensing, including initial licensing, must include a
determination that the facility does not pose an unreasonable threat to persons
or the environment because of safety or security vulnerabilities, including
vulnerability to terrorist attacks;
• Require that there exist adequate evacuation plans for emergency events and
that those plans have been approved by the relevant Federal agencies and States
within 50 miles of the facility;
• Require that any renewed license must meet the same criteria and requirements
that would be applicable for an original application for initial construction;
and
• Require the NRC to determine that any changes in the size or distribution of
the surrounding population have not resulted in the facility being located at a
site at which a new facility would not be allowed to be built.

Congresswoman Lowey originally introduced this legislation in the 109th
Congress.

Take Action

Click here [sorry, look it up. - JH] to send a fax to Chairman Dale Klein of
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, requesting that the NRC in the relicensing
process for Indian Point, provide the public and elected officials with a
comprehensive, detailed response to all of Witt's findings as called for in
federal legislation proposed in the U.S. House (649) sponsored by
Representatives Hall, Hinchey, Lowey, Engel, and Shays, and U.S. Senate (994)
sponsored by Senators Clinton and Schumer. This legislation is also supported
by New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.


For more information on Riverkeeper’s Indian Point Campaign, visit
http://riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/indian_point

Lisa Rainwater, PhD
Indian Point Campaign Director
Riverkeeper, Inc.
828 S. Broadway
Tarrytown, NY 10591



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