{"id":64722,"date":"2017-01-28T17:07:05","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T21:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=64722"},"modified":"2017-01-28T17:32:16","modified_gmt":"2017-01-28T21:32:16","slug":"facts-on-storage-of-fuel-rods-at-indian-point-nuclear-power-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=64722","title":{"rendered":"Facts on Storage of Fuel Rods At Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cooling pools are OVER-filled at the
\nIndian Point Nuclear Power Plant
\nlocated 30 miles north of New York City<\/span>
\n<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n

Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

High Level Radioactive Waste Storage\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Submitted byMarilyn Elie<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who live in the community surrounding a nuclear power plant regard<\/span><\/p>\n

their relationship with the company as a long term marriage. \u00a0The company<\/span><\/p>\n

regards it as a series of one night stands. As soon as they are not making<\/span><\/p>\n

enough money they\u2019re out of there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*Arnie Gundersen, former nuclear\u00a0<\/span>industry and engineer with more than 44 years of industry experience and\u00a0<\/span>currently CEO of Fairewinds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All of the high level radioactive waste ever created at Indian Point is<\/span><\/p>\n

still on site. It should remain on site in dry casks to isolate it from the<\/span><\/p>\n

environment, people and property and dry casks can be monitored. It is<\/span><\/p>\n

undemocratic and immoral to force waste on unwilling host communities or<\/span><\/p>\n

struggling communities that are so desperate that they will accept the<\/span><\/p>\n

risk. The transportation of high level radioactive waste through the roads<\/span><\/p>\n

and highways, or the water channels, or railroad tracks in our cities and<\/span><\/p>\n

towns is inherently dangerous and must be avoided. Options to explore for<\/span><\/p>\n

on-site storage are Hardened On Site Storage and Rolling Stewardship. See:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ccnr.org\/Rolling_Stewardship.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.beyondnuclear.org\/on-site-storage\/2009\/7\/11\/hardened-on-site-storage-hoss.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM?<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The original design basis for the pools at each reactor was 264 fuel<\/span><\/p>\n

assemblies. The NRC raised that number and as of 2013 there were 1,374 fuel<\/span><\/p>\n

assemblies in the pool at Unit 2 and 1,345 in Unit 3 – a total of 2,719;<\/span><\/p>\n

more than 5 times the amount for which the pools were designed. The crowded<\/span><\/p>\n

pools far exceed design capacity and are hazardous. This does not include<\/span><\/p>\n

the additional 157 assemblies of high level radioactive fuel rods inside<\/span><\/p>\n

each reactor. This is the \u201chottest\u201d radioactive material on site and it<\/span><\/p>\n

must remain in the spent fuel pool for at least five years. Older waste<\/span><\/p>\n

can be moved out of the pools and into dry cask storage as rapidly as<\/span><\/p>\n

possible where it can be isolated, better monitored and protected.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Each dry cask can accommodate 32 fuel assemblies and each cask costs over a<\/span><\/p>\n

million dollars. The Indian Point closing agreement calls for moving these<\/span><\/p>\n

assemblies into dry cask storage at the rate of four per year. Unless this<\/span><\/p>\n

rate is accelerated, the process will take sixty seven years, this is over<\/span><\/p>\n

the 60 years allowed to decommission the site, should Entergy remain in<\/span><\/p>\n

business that long. Who pays for all of this?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a decommissioning fund established with money from rate payers<\/span><\/p>\n

which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says meets legal requirements. Rate<\/span><\/p>\n

payers no longer pay into this fund and neither does Entergy because of<\/span><\/p>\n

legal constraints that go back to when the reactors came on line. It is<\/span><\/p>\n

supposed cover the reactor, control room, and fuel pool. (One pool needs to<\/span><\/p>\n

remain for the process of moving assemblies into dry cask storage.) The<\/span><\/p>\n

fund has proved inadequate at other reactors that have been decommissioned<\/span><\/p>\n

and will most likely be inadequate for Indian Point. Indian Point presents<\/span><\/p>\n

some additional challenges because of numerous leaks and groundwater flow.<\/span><\/p>\n

It should be noted that the NRC is the lead agency only for those parts of<\/span><\/p>\n

the site mentioned above. It is not the lead agency for decommissioning any<\/span><\/p>\n

of the contaminated ground under the reactors or any of the other<\/span><\/p>\n

structures that may still have to be removed. A Citizens Advisory<\/span><\/p>\n

Committee needs to be established so that stakeholders have a voice in this<\/span><\/p>\n

lengthy and complicated process.
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*Contact the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition: www.ipwecinfo.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ipwecinfo.com
\n<\/span><\/a>Phone: 888-474-8848
\n<\/span><\/a>Facebook: IPSEC-Indian\u00a0<\/span>Point Safe Energy Coalition<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cooling pools are OVER-filled at the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant located 30 miles north of New York City<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}