Riverkeeper is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water. It started out as the Hudson River Fisherman's Association (HRFA) in 1966. In 1986, the group merged with the Hudson Riverkeeper Fund it established in 1983 and took on the name Riverkeeper. In 1999, the Waterkeeper Alliance was created as an umbrella organization to unite and support "keeper" organizations.
154-420: The organization has lobbied against nuclear power and hydropower . The Hudson Valley has long been considered the birthplace of the modern American environmental movement . In the 1960s, a small group of scientists, fishermen, and concerned citizens led by Robert H. Boyle , author of The Hudson River, A Natural and Unnatural History and a senior writer at Sports Illustrated , were determined to reverse
308-403: A neutron hits the nucleus of a uranium-235 or plutonium atom, it can split the nucleus into two smaller nuclei, which is a nuclear fission reaction. The reaction releases energy and neutrons. The released neutrons can hit other uranium or plutonium nuclei, causing new fission reactions, which release more energy and more neutrons. This is called a chain reaction . In most commercial reactors,
462-496: A nuclear renaissance , an increase in the construction of new reactors, due to concerns about carbon dioxide emissions . During this period, newer generation III reactors , such as the EPR began construction. Prospects of a nuclear renaissance were delayed by another nuclear accident. The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident was caused by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami , one of
616-424: A 400-page report on the estimates of evacuation times. This report, performed by emergency planning company KLD Engineering, concluded that the existing traffic management plans provided by Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester Counties are adequate and require no changes. According to one list that ranks U.S. nuclear power plants by their likelihood of having a major natural disaster related incident, Indian Point
770-411: A 5-year sentence and was hired by Kennedy a few months after his release from prison in 1999. After the board's decision, Boyle, eight of the 22 members of the board, and Riverkeeper's treasurer resigned, saying it was not right for an environmental organization to hire someone convicted of environmental crimes and that it would hurt the organization's fundraising. In 1963, Consolidated Edison applied for
924-542: A deactivation period from May to August. An Indian Point spokesman stated that such a period would be unnecessary, as Indian Point "is fully protective of life in the Hudson River and $ 75 million has been spent over the last 30 years on scientific studies demonstrating that the plant has no harmful impact to adult fish." The hearings lasted three weeks. Concerns were also raised over the alternate proposal to building new cooling towers, which would cut down forest land that
1078-559: A gross generating capacity of 1,032 MWe, and Unit 3 had a gross generating capacity of 1,051 MWe. Both reactors used uranium dioxide fuel of no more than 4.8% U-235 enrichment. The reactors at Indian Point are protected by containment domes made of steel-reinforced concrete that is 40 inches (1.0 m) thick, with a carbon steel liner. Prior to their respective shutdowns, Units 2 and 3 were among six operating nuclear energy sources at four nuclear power stations in New York state. New York
1232-467: A key player in the 1997 Watershed Memorandum of Agreement, which obligated New York City to spend $ 1 billion over 10 years to ensure the safety of its water supply and forestalled a federal order that would have forced the city to build a $ 6 billion filtration plant. In the 1997 agreement, New York City and communities around the reservoirs in the Catskill Aqueduct system pledged to undertake
1386-574: A license from the Federal Power Commission to build a power station on the Hudson River at Storm King Mountain . Local opponents tried to block the plant. In 1965, the conflict became national news when Boyle wrote about it in an article in Sports Illustrated which also recounted Con Edison dumping dead fish in a landfill near its Indian Point power plant and conspiring with New York's Conservation Department to conceal
1540-410: A low-level waste disposal site. In countries with nuclear power, radioactive wastes account for less than 1% of total industrial toxic wastes, much of which remains hazardous for long periods. Overall, nuclear power produces far less waste material by volume than fossil-fuel based power plants. Coal-burning plants, in particular, produce large amounts of toxic and mildly radioactive ash resulting from
1694-424: A mile north of Indian Point. The Ramapo Fault is the longest fault in the northeast, but scientists dispute how active this roughly two-hundred-million-year-old fault is. Many earthquakes in the state's varied seismic history are believed to have occurred on or near it. The fault line is visible at ground level and likely extends as deep as nine miles below the surface. According to a company spokesman, Indian Point
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#17327809699401848-442: A plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity. According to an analysis of U.S. Census data for MSNBC , the 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Indian Point
2002-533: A reactor. Spent thorium fuel, although more difficult to handle than spent uranium fuel, may present somewhat lower proliferation risks. The nuclear industry also produces a large volume of low-level waste , with low radioactivity, in the form of contaminated items like clothing, hand tools, water purifier resins, and (upon decommissioning) the materials of which the reactor itself is built. Low-level waste can be stored on-site until radiation levels are low enough to be disposed of as ordinary waste, or it can be sent to
2156-515: A record of 739 continuous days, set in 2006. Indian Point 1, built by ConEdison, was a 275-megawatt Babcock & Wilcox supplied pressurized water reactor that was issued an operating license on March 26, 1962 and began operations on September 16, 1962. The first core used a thorium -based fuel with stainless steel cladding, but this fuel did not live up to expectations for core life. The thorium-based core shut down in October 1965. The plant
2310-440: A result of the closure. Unit 3 currently holds the world record for the longest uninterrupted operating period for a light water commercial power reactor. This record is 753 days of continuous operation, and was set on April 30, 2021 for the operating cycle beginning on April 9, 2019. Unit 3 operated at or near full output capacity for the entire length of the cycle. This record was previously held by Exelon's LaSalle Unit 1 with
2464-573: A result of the shutdown. As a result of the permanent shutdown of the plant, three new natural-gas fired power plants were built: Bayonne Energy Center , CPV Valley Energy Center , and Cricket Valley Energy Center , with a total capacity of 1.8 GW, replacing 90% of the 2.0 GW of low-carbon electricity previously generated by the plant. As a consequence, New York is expected to struggle to meet its climate goals . New York City's greenhouse gas emissions from electricity have increased from approximately 500 to 900 tons of CO2 per MWh from 2019 to 2022 as
2618-565: A series of actions, like installing new equipment in sewage plants to discharge treated wastewater into the reservoirs and buying land to prevent development that could let chemicals enter the water. In return, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has been able to maintain an unfiltered water supply in the Catskill system, the largest such system in the country. By removing old, obsolete dams, Riverkeeper
2772-533: A sharp increase in the cost of electricity for downstate users and even "rotating black-outs". Several members of the House of Representatives representing districts near the plant have also opposed recertification, including Democrats Nita Lowey , Maurice Hinchey , and Eliot Engel and then-Republican member Sue Kelly . In November 2016 the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the application to renew
2926-1087: A shortage near the end of the century. A 2017 study by researchers from MIT and WHOI found that "at the current consumption rate, global conventional reserves of terrestrial uranium (approximately 7.6 million tonnes) could be depleted in a little over a century". Limited uranium-235 supply may inhibit substantial expansion with the current nuclear technology. While various ways to reduce dependence on such resources are being explored, new nuclear technologies are considered to not be available in time for climate change mitigation purposes or competition with alternatives of renewables in addition to being more expensive and require costly research and development. A study found it to be uncertain whether identified resources will be developed quickly enough to provide uninterrupted fuel supply to expanded nuclear facilities and various forms of mining may be challenged by ecological barriers, costs, and land requirements. Researchers also report considerable import dependence of nuclear energy. Unconventional uranium resources also exist. Uranium
3080-416: A significant danger to wildlife or the public remains controversial. Though anti-nuclear group Riverkeeper notes "Radioactive leakage from the plant containing several radioactive isotopes, such as strontium-90, cesium-137, cobalt-60, nickel-63 and tritium, a rarely-occurring isotope of hydrogen, has flowed into groundwater that eventually enters the Hudson River in the past, there is no evidence radiation from
3234-405: A significant effect on countries, such as France and Japan , which had relied more heavily on oil for electric generation to invest in nuclear power. France would construct 25 nuclear power plants over the next 15 years, and as of 2019, 71% of French electricity was generated by nuclear power, the highest percentage by any nation in the world. Some local opposition to nuclear power emerged in
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#17327809699403388-422: A sufficiently large group of attackers. According to The New York Times , fuel stored in dry casks is less vulnerable to terrorist attack than fuel in the storage pools. At the end of 2015, Governor Cuomo began to ramp up political action against Indian Point, opening investigations with the state public utility commission, the department of health, and the department of environmental conservation. To put
3542-425: A typical nuclear power station are often stored on site in dry cask storage vessels. Presently, waste is mainly stored at individual reactor sites and there are over 430 locations around the world where radioactive material continues to accumulate. Disposal of nuclear waste is often considered the most politically divisive aspect in the lifecycle of a nuclear power facility. The lack of movement of nuclear waste in
3696-499: A wildlife lecturer and falcon trainer whom Boyle had fired six months earlier after learning that Wegner had been convicted in 1995 for tax fraud, perjury and conspiracy to violate wildlife protection laws. Wegner had recruited and led a team of at least 10 people who smuggled cockatoo eggs, including species considered endangered by Australia, from Australia to the United States over a period of eight years. He served 3.5 years of
3850-490: Is high-level radioactive waste . While its radioactivity decreases exponentially, it must be isolated from the biosphere for hundreds of thousands of years, though newer technologies (like fast reactors ) have the potential to significantly reduce this. Because the spent fuel is still mostly fissionable material, some countries (e.g. France and Russia ) reprocess their spent fuel by extracting fissile and fertile elements for fabrication into new fuel, although this process
4004-408: Is spent nuclear fuel , which is considered high-level waste . For Light Water Reactors (LWRs), spent fuel is typically composed of 95% uranium, 4% fission products , and about 1% transuranic actinides (mostly plutonium , neptunium and americium ). The fission products are responsible for the bulk of the short-term radioactivity, whereas the plutonium and other transuranics are responsible for
4158-725: Is 89%. Most new reactors under construction are generation III reactors in Asia. Proponents contend that nuclear power is a safe, sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions . This is because nuclear power generation causes one of the lowest levels of fatalities per unit of energy generated compared to other energy sources. Coal, petroleum, natural gas and hydroelectricity have each caused more fatalities per unit of energy due to air pollution and accidents . Nuclear power plants also emit no greenhouse gases and result in less life-cycle carbon emissions than common "renewables". The radiological hazards associated with nuclear power are
4312-486: Is a fairly common element in the Earth's crust: it is approximately as common as tin or germanium , and is about 40 times more common than silver . Uranium is present in trace concentrations in most rocks, dirt, and ocean water, but is generally economically extracted only where it is present in relatively high concentrations. Uranium mining can be underground, open-pit , or in-situ leach mining. An increasing number of
4466-424: Is a natural and effective barrier to radiation. The spent fuel pools at Indian Point are set in bedrock and are constructed of concrete walls that are four to six feet wide, with a quarter-inch thick stainless steel inner liner. The pools each have multiple redundant backup cooling systems. Indian Point began dry cask storage of spent fuel rods in 2008, which is a safe and environmentally sound option according to
4620-461: Is also produced during plant decommissioning. There are two broad categories of nuclear waste: low-level waste and high-level waste. The first has low radioactivity and includes contaminated items such as clothing, which poses limited threat. High-level waste is mainly the spent fuel from nuclear reactors, which is very radioactive and must be cooled and then safely disposed of or reprocessed. The most important waste stream from nuclear power reactors
4774-489: Is also safer in terms of nuclear proliferation potential. Reprocessing has the potential to recover up to 95% of the uranium and plutonium fuel in spent nuclear fuel, as well as reduce long-term radioactivity within the remaining waste. However, reprocessing has been politically controversial because of the potential for nuclear proliferation and varied perceptions of increasing the vulnerability to nuclear terrorism . Reprocessing also leads to higher fuel cost compared to
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4928-498: Is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history both in total casualties, with 56 direct deaths, and financially, with the cleanup and the cost estimated at 18 billion Rbls (US$ 68 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation). The international organization to promote safety awareness and the professional development of operators in nuclear facilities, the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO),
5082-410: Is contained within sixteen casks. It is estimated that to produce a lifetime supply of energy for a person at a western standard of living (approximately 3 GWh ) would require on the order of the volume of a soda can of low enriched uranium , resulting in a similar volume of spent fuel generated. Following interim storage in a spent fuel pool , the bundles of used fuel rod assemblies of
5236-558: Is currently done in France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, and India. In the United States, spent nuclear fuel is currently not reprocessed. The La Hague reprocessing facility in France has operated commercially since 1976 and is responsible for half the world's reprocessing as of 2010. It produces MOX fuel from spent fuel derived from several countries. More than 32,000 tonnes of spent fuel had been reprocessed as of 2015, with
5390-560: Is estimated that, over decades, oil refineries on those shores spilled between 17 and 30 million gallons of product into the creek. More than 13 million gallons have been cleaned up so far. Riverkeeper has brought litigation forward, raised public awareness about the oil spill, and worked with state officials to address this contamination. Nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity . Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission , nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently,
5544-405: Is in the commissioning phase, with plans to build more. Another alternative to fast-neutron breeders are thermal-neutron breeder reactors that use uranium-233 bred from thorium as fission fuel in the thorium fuel cycle . Thorium is about 3.5 times more common than uranium in the Earth's crust, and has different geographic characteristics. India's three-stage nuclear power programme features
5698-424: Is more expensive than producing new fuel from mined uranium . All reactors breed some plutonium-239 , which is found in the spent fuel, and because Pu-239 is the preferred material for nuclear weapons , reprocessing is seen as a weapon proliferation risk. The first nuclear power plant was built in the 1950s. The global installed nuclear capacity grew to 100 GW in the late 1970s, and then expanded during
5852-521: Is much less radioactive than spent nuclear fuel by weight, coal ash is produced in much higher quantities per unit of energy generated. It is also released directly into the environment as fly ash , whereas nuclear plants use shielding to protect the environment from radioactive materials. Nuclear waste volume is small compared to the energy produced. For example, at Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station , which generated 44 billion kilowatt hours of electricity when in service, its complete spent fuel inventory
6006-478: Is naturally present in seawater at a concentration of about 3 micrograms per liter, with 4.4 billion tons of uranium considered present in seawater at any time. In 2014 it was suggested that it would be economically competitive to produce nuclear fuel from seawater if the process was implemented at large scale. Like fossil fuels, over geological timescales, uranium extracted on an industrial scale from seawater would be replenished by both river erosion of rocks and
6160-431: Is one of two EPZs intended to facilitate a strategy for protective action during an emergency and comply with NRC regulations. "The exact size and shape of each EPZ is a result of detailed planning which includes consideration of the specific conditions at each site, unique geographical features of the area, and demographic information. This preplanned strategy for an EPZ provides a substantial basis to support activity beyond
6314-545: Is still going through the regulatory process in both the NYISO and NYSPSC. The generation capacity lost by closure of the Indian Point plant was largely replaced by fossil gas, substantially increasing carbon emissions. In the first full month after closure, carbon emissions from in-state generation in New York rose 35 percent, and the state's natural gas generation jumped from 35 percent to 39 percent. The power plant
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6468-481: Is subject of a debate with the local community. The reactors were built on land that originally housed the Indian Point Amusement Park , which was acquired by Consolidated Edison (ConEdison) on October 14, 1954. Indian Point became a topic of concern for environmental groups, which expressed concerns about radiation pollution and endangerment of wildlife. Whether Indian Point has ever posed
6622-642: Is suspected to be used as breeding ground by muskrat and mink. At the time of the report, no minks or muskrats were spotted there. In February 2016, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo called for a full investigation of the plant's operations by state environment and public health officials. However, Cuomo's motivation for closing the plant was called into question after it was revealed that two top former aides, under federal prosecution for influence-peddling, had lobbied on behalf of natural gas company Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) to kill Indian Point. In his indictment, US attorney Preet Bharara wrote "the importance of
6776-617: Is the reactor-grade plutonium (RGPu) that is extracted from spent fuel. It is mixed with uranium oxide and fabricated into mixed-oxide or MOX fuel . Because thermal LWRs remain the most common reactor worldwide, this type of recycling is the most common. It is considered to increase the sustainability of the nuclear fuel cycle, reduce the attractiveness of spent fuel to theft, and lower the volume of high level nuclear waste. Spent MOX fuel cannot generally be recycled for use in thermal-neutron reactors. This issue does not affect fast-neutron reactors , which are therefore preferred in order to achieve
6930-471: Is the most likely to be hit by a natural disaster, mainly an earthquake. Despite this, the owners of the plant still say that safety is a selling point for the nuclear power plant. Indian Point stores used fuel rods in two spent fuel pools at the facility. The spent fuel pools at Indian Point are not stored under a containment dome like the reactor, but rather they are contained within an indoor 40-foot-deep pool and submerged under 27 feet of water. Water
7084-458: Is then converted into a compact ore concentrate form, known as yellowcake (U 3 O 8 ), to facilitate transport. Fission reactors generally need uranium-235 , a fissile isotope of uranium . The concentration of uranium-235 in natural uranium is low (about 0.7%). Some reactors can use this natural uranium as fuel, depending on their neutron economy . These reactors generally have graphite or heavy water moderators. For light water reactors,
7238-546: Is working to restore life to creeks and streams in the Hudson Valley. There are an estimated 2,000 dams in the Hudson River Estuary between New York City and Albany, NY. Many are small and obsolete, abandoned by long-shuttered factories and serving no purpose other than to thwart fish migration and harm river ecology. A challenge for Riverkeeper is convincing people that removing a dam will have payoffs for
7392-782: The New York Power Authority , had conducted a more limited analysis in the 1990s than Unit 2's previous owner, Con Edison, leading to the impression that Unit 3 had fewer seismic protections than Unit 2. Neither submission of data from the previous owners was incorrect. I.P.E.C. Units 2 and 3 both operated at 100% full power before, during, and after the Virginia earthquake on August 23, 2011. A thorough inspection of both units by plant personnel immediately following this event verified no significant damage occurred at either unit. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants:
7546-568: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was moving toward granting a twenty-year extension for each reactor. However, due to a number of factors including sustained low wholesale energy prices that reduced revenues, as well as pressure from local anti-nuclear groups and then- Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo , it was announced that the plant would shut down by 2021. The plant permanently stopped generating energy on April 30, 2021. About 1,000 employees lost their jobs as
7700-540: The Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository of the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant was under construction as of 2015. Most thermal-neutron reactors run on a once-through nuclear fuel cycle , mainly due to the low price of fresh uranium. However, many reactors are also fueled with recycled fissionable materials that remain in spent nuclear fuel. The most common fissionable material that is recycled
7854-637: The September 11 attacks , American Airlines Flight 11 flew near the Indian Point Energy Center en route to the World Trade Center . Mohamed Atta , one of the 9/11 hijackers/plotters, had considered nuclear facilities for targeting in a terrorist attack. Entergy says it is prepared for a terrorist attack, and asserts that a large airliner crash into the containment building would not cause reactor damage. Following 9/11,
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#17327809699408008-439: The integral fast reactor and molten salt reactors , can use as fuel the plutonium and other actinides in spent fuel from light water reactors, thanks to their fast fission spectrum. This offers a potentially more attractive alternative to deep geological disposal. The thorium fuel cycle results in similar fission products, though creates a much smaller proportion of transuranic elements from neutron capture events within
8162-520: The subway , airports, public schools, and housing in New York City and Westchester County, built Unit 3 but they stopped buying electricity from Indian Point in 2012. As a result, Entergy sold all of Indian Point's output into the NYISO administered electric wholesale markets and into New England. New York state has among the highest average electricity prices in the United States. Fully half of
8316-422: The thermal energy released from nuclear fission . A fission nuclear power plant is generally composed of: a nuclear reactor , in which the nuclear reactions generating heat take place; a cooling system, which removes the heat from inside the reactor; a steam turbine , which transforms the heat into mechanical energy ; an electric generator , which transforms the mechanical energy into electrical energy. When
8470-642: The 1980s, reaching 300 GW by 1990. The 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union resulted in increased regulation and public opposition to nuclear power plants. These factors, along with high cost of construction, resulted in the global installed capacity only increasing to 392 GW by 2023. These plants supplied 2,602 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2023, equivalent to about 9% of global electricity generation , and were
8624-766: The 2 billion year old natural nuclear fission reactors in Oklo , Gabon is cited as "a source of essential information today." Experts suggest that centralized underground repositories which are well-managed, guarded, and monitored, would be a vast improvement. There is an "international consensus on the advisability of storing nuclear waste in deep geological repositories ". With the advent of new technologies, other methods including horizontal drillhole disposal into geologically inactive areas have been proposed. There are no commercial scale purpose built underground high-level waste repositories in operation. However, in Finland
8778-507: The 2011 disaster. Kishida is also pushing for research and construction of new safer nuclear plants to safeguard Japanese consumers from the fluctuating price of the fossil fuel market and reduce Japan's greenhouse gas emissions. Kishida intends to have Japan become a significant exporter of nuclear energy and technology to developing countries around the world. By 2015, the IAEA's outlook for nuclear energy had become more promising, recognizing
8932-475: The 25-foot boat "Riverkeeper" with John Cronin as its skipper, the first riverkeeper in the United States. His tenure began with HRFA's 1983 landmark victory over the Exxon Company , whose oil tankers Cronin caught discharging salt water polluted with petrochemicals from their holds into the Hudson River at Hyde Park, New York and filling them with river water for use in their Aruba refinery and to sell to
9086-552: The Hudson River. Prior to the closure of the plant, some alternate proposals for clean energy generation in the area included Grid energy storage , renewables (solar and wind), a new transmission cable from Canada , and a 650MW natural gas plant located in Wawayanda, New York . There was also a 1,000 MW merchant HVDC transmission line proposed in 2013 to the public service commission that would have interconnected at Athens, New York and Buchanan, New York; however, this project
9240-662: The Hudson, including the longstanding problem of PCBs in the Hudson, which have made the river's fish dangerous to eat. Riverkeeper also acts on Superfund sites like Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek . New York City's two most notoriously polluted waterways were listed as federal Superfund sites within months of each other in the 2010s. Since then, a full-fledged cleanup has begun in Gowanus Canal – yet Newtown Creek has no relief in sight. The once heavily industrialized Newtown Creek features 11 miles of shoreline that winds along
9394-411: The Hudson, warning that water-intake equipment would kill small fish. In so doing, he opened up the courts to environmentalists for the first time in history, establishing the principle that citizens can sue corporations on the basis of potential harm to aesthetic, recreational, or conservational values as well as tangible economic injury. In 1983, Boyle founded HRFA's Hudson Riverkeeper Fund and launched
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#17327809699409548-568: The NRC for 40 years of operation. The original federal license for Unit 2 was due to expire on September 28, 2013, and the license for Unit 3 was due to expire in December 2015. On April 30, 2007, Entergy submitted an application for a 20-year renewal of the licenses for both units. On May 2, 2007, the NRC announced that this application is available for public review. Because the owner submitted license renewal applications at least five years prior to
9702-517: The NRC operating licenses must be reviewed against the state's coastal management program, which the New York State Department of State had already decided was inconsistent with coastal management requirements. Entergy had filed a lawsuit regarding the validity of Department of State's decision. Indian Point Energy Center was given a heightened amount of scrutiny and was regulated more heavily than various other power plants in
9856-578: The NRC required operators of nuclear facilities in the U.S. to examine the effects of terrorist events and provide planned responses. In September 2006, the Indian Point Security Department successfully completed mock assault exercises required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. However, according to environmental group Riverkeeper , these NRC exercises are inadequate because they do not envision
10010-512: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ruled that Indian Point violated the federal Clean Water Act , because "the power plant's water-intake system kills nearly a billion aquatic organisms a year, including the shortnose sturgeon, an endangered species." The state had demanded that Entergy construct new closed-cycle cooling towers at a cost of over $ 1 billion, a decision that would have effectively closed
10164-409: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Some rods have already been moved to casks from the spent fuel pools. The pools will be kept nearly full of spent fuel, leaving enough space to allow emptying the reactor completely. Dry cask storage systems are designed to resist floods, tornadoes, projectiles, temperature extremes, and other unusual scenarios. The NRC requires the spent fuel to be cooled and stored in
10318-622: The PWR being the reactor of choice also for power generation, thus having a lasting impact on the civilian electricity market in the years to come. On June 27, 1954, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant in the USSR became the world's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid , producing around 5 megawatts of electric power. The world's first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall at Windscale, England
10472-555: The Queens-Brooklyn border. From 1915 to 1917, the waterway handled as much freight tonnage as the entire Mississippi River. Over 150 years of industrial use have resulted in substantial contamination and impairment of habitat related to releases of hazardous substances and oil. Fish and crab consumption advisories are in place, including a ban on eating fish and crabs by children and women of childbearing age, and other recreational opportunities have also been negatively affected. It
10626-585: The United States in the early 1960s. In the late 1960s, some members of the scientific community began to express pointed concerns. These anti-nuclear concerns related to nuclear accidents , nuclear proliferation , nuclear terrorism and radioactive waste disposal . In the early 1970s, there were large protests about a proposed nuclear power plant in Wyhl , Germany. The project was cancelled in 1975. The anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired opposition to nuclear power in other parts of Europe and North America. By
10780-401: The United States, over 120 Light Water Reactor proposals were ultimately cancelled and the construction of new reactors ground to a halt. The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island with no fatalities, played a major part in the reduction in the number of new plant constructions in many countries. During the 1980s one new nuclear reactor started up every 17 days on average. By the end of
10934-471: The absence of Indian Point, grid voltages would degrade, which would limit the ability to transfer power from upstate New York resources through the Hudson Valley to New York City. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo continued to call for closure of Indian Point. In late June 2011, a Cuomo advisor met with Entergy executives and directly informed them for the first time of the Governor's intention to close
11088-640: The actinides (the most active and dangerous components) in the present inventory of nuclear waste, while also producing power and creating additional quantities of fuel for more reactors via the breeding process. As of 2017, there are two breeders producing commercial power, BN-600 reactor and the BN-800 reactor , both in Russia. The Phénix breeder reactor in France was powered down in 2009 after 36 years of operation. Both China and India are building breeder reactors. The Indian 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor
11242-630: The area. Columnist Peter Applebome, writing in The New York Times , noted that such an area around Indian Point would include "almost all of New York City except for Staten Island ; almost all of Nassau County and much of Suffolk County ; all of Bergen County ; all of Fairfield County ". He quotes Purdue University professor Daniel Aldrich as saying, "Many scholars have already argued that any evacuation plans shouldn't be called plans, but rather "fantasy documents"". The current ten-mile plume-exposure pathway Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ)
11396-593: The building of larger single-purpose production reactors for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for use in the first nuclear weapons. The United States tested the first nuclear weapon in July 1945, the Trinity test , and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened one month later. Despite the military nature of the first nuclear devices, there was strong optimism in the 1940s and 1950s that nuclear power could provide cheap and endless energy. Electricity
11550-702: The bulk of the long-term radioactivity. High-level waste (HLW) must be stored isolated from the biosphere with sufficient shielding so as to limit radiation exposure. After being removed from the reactors, used fuel bundles are stored for six to ten years in spent fuel pools , which provide cooling and shielding against radiation. After that, the fuel is cool enough that it can be safely transferred to dry cask storage . The radioactivity decreases exponentially with time, such that it will have decreased by 99.5% after 100 years. The more intensely radioactive short-lived fission products (SLFPs) decay into stable elements in approximately 300 years, and after about 100,000 years,
11704-415: The concentration of naturally occurring radioactive materials in coal. A 2008 report from Oak Ridge National Laboratory concluded that coal power actually results in more radioactivity being released into the environment than nuclear power operation, and that the population effective dose equivalent from radiation from coal plants is 100 times that from the operation of nuclear plants. Although coal ash
11858-747: The cusp of World War II , in order to develop a nuclear weapon . In the United States, these research efforts led to the creation of the first man-made nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1 under the Stagg Field stadium at the University of Chicago , which achieved criticality on December 2, 1942. The reactor's development was part of the Manhattan Project , the Allied effort to create atomic bombs during World War II. It led to
12012-409: The decade, global installed nuclear capacity reached 300 GW. Since the late 1980s, new capacity additions slowed significantly, with the installed nuclear capacity reaching 366 GW in 2005. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the USSR , involving an RBMK reactor, altered the development of nuclear power and led to a greater focus on meeting international safety and regulatory standards. It
12166-439: The decline of the then-polluted Hudson River by confronting the polluters through advocacy and citizen law enforcement. Eventually, the organization became a powerhouse that has played a leading role in protecting the Hudson and the New York City watershed. Along with Scenic Hudson and other groups, Boyle was at the forefront of the fight against a Con Edison power plant proposal that would have destroyed Storm King mountain , by
12320-472: The disaster, Japan shut down all of its nuclear power reactors, some of them permanently, and in 2015 began a gradual process to restart the remaining 40 reactors, following safety checks and based on revised criteria for operations and public approval. In 2022, the Japanese government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida , declared that 10 more nuclear power plants were to be reopened since
12474-475: The electricity provided by Indian Point could be fully replaced by renewable energy. After the closure, carbon emissions from electricity generation in New York state increased by 37% and the share of fossil fuel energy in the electric grid increased by 90%. In August 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the “Save the Hudson” bill into law. Riverkeeper worked in collaboration with others to pass this law. According to
12628-727: The fish and the landscape. Riverkeeper began their dam removal efforts in 2016, when they collaborated with the City of Troy and the state Department of Environmental Conservation to help remove a dam in the Wynants Kill. In 2020, Riverkeeper continued to restore streams by removing the Strooks Felt Dam on Quassaick Creek in Newburgh as well as another dam on Furnace Brook in Westchester County. Riverkeeper studies
12782-506: The five-county region, and 1,600 in other industries in New York, for a total of 5,400 in-state jobs. Additionally, another 5,300 indirect jobs were created out of state, creating a sum total of 10,700 jobs throughout the United States. Closure of the plant was expected to create a $ 15,000,000 fund which will be split between "community and environmental" projects, with the Riverkeeper environmental group expecting to receive half, which
12936-570: The form of three projects: series compensation at a station in Marcy, New York , reconductoring a transmission line, adding an additional transmission line, and "unbottling" Staten Island capacity. These projects, with the exception of part of the Staten Island "unbottling", were in service by mid-2016. The cost of the TOTS projects are distributed among various utilities in their rate cases before
13090-456: The full energy potential of the original uranium. The main constituent of spent fuel from LWRs is slightly enriched uranium . This can be recycled into reprocessed uranium (RepU), which can be used in a fast reactor, used directly as fuel in CANDU reactors, or re-enriched for another cycle through an LWR. Re-enriching of reprocessed uranium is common in France and Russia. Reprocessed uranium
13244-521: The heart of France's drive for carbon neutrality by 2050. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Department of Energy , in collaboration with commercial entities, TerraPower and X-energy , is planning on building two different advanced nuclear reactors by 2027, with further plans for nuclear implementation in its long term green energy and energy security goals. Nuclear power plants are thermal power stations that generate electricity by harnessing
13398-578: The highest output mines are remote underground operations, such as McArthur River uranium mine , in Canada, which by itself accounts for 13% of global production. As of 2011 the world's known resources of uranium, economically recoverable at the arbitrary price ceiling of US$ 130/kg, were enough to last for between 70 and 100 years. In 2007, the OECD estimated 670 years of economically recoverable uranium in total conventional resources and phosphate ores assuming
13552-425: The importance of low-carbon generation for mitigating climate change . As of 2015 , the global trend was for new nuclear power stations coming online to be balanced by the number of old plants being retired. In 2016, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected for its "base case" that world nuclear power generation would increase from 2,344 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2012 to 4,500 TWh in 2040. Most of
13706-437: The island's people as drinking water. Exxon settled the lawsuit out of court, paying $ 2 million to the state of New York and environmental groups. In 1984, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. began volunteering at HRFA. After he was admitted to the New York bar in 1985, Riverkeeper hired him as senior attorney. Kennedy resigned from Riverkeeper in 2017 when he moved to California, writing in his resignation letter that he had co-founded
13860-574: The largest earthquakes ever recorded. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant suffered three core meltdowns due to failure of the emergency cooling system for lack of electricity supply. This resulted in the most serious nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster. The accident prompted a re-examination of nuclear safety and nuclear energy policy in many countries. Germany approved plans to close all its reactors by 2022, and many other countries reviewed their nuclear power programs. Following
14014-551: The late 1970s. During the 1970s and 1980s rising economic costs (related to extended construction times largely due to regulatory changes and pressure-group litigation) and falling fossil fuel prices made nuclear power plants then under construction less attractive. In the 1980s in the U.S. and 1990s in Europe, the flat electric grid growth and electricity liberalization also made the addition of large new baseload energy generators economically unattractive. The 1973 oil crisis had
14168-516: The life of nuclear fuel to a few years. In some countries, such as the United States, spent fuel is classified in its entirety as a nuclear waste. In other countries, such as France, it is largely reprocessed to produce a partially recycled fuel, known as mixed oxide fuel or MOX . For spent fuel that does not undergo reprocessing, the most concerning isotopes are the medium-lived transuranic elements , which are led by reactor-grade plutonium (half-life 24,000 years). Some proposed reactor designs, such as
14322-663: The lifetime of a facility and saved in a decommissioning fund. Indian Point Energy Center Indian Point Energy Center ( I.P.E.C. ) is a now defunct three-unit nuclear power station located in Buchanan , just south of Peekskill , in Westchester County , New York . It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River , about 36 miles (58 km) north of Midtown Manhattan . The facility permanently ceased power operations on April 30, 2021. Before its closure,
14476-719: The majority from France, 17% from Germany, and 9% from Japan. Breeding is the process of converting non-fissile material into fissile material that can be used as nuclear fuel. The non-fissile material that can be used for this process is called fertile material , and constitute the vast majority of current nuclear waste. This breeding process occurs naturally in breeder reactors . As opposed to light water thermal-neutron reactors, which use uranium-235 (0.7% of all natural uranium), fast-neutron breeder reactors use uranium-238 (99.3% of all natural uranium) or thorium. A number of fuel cycles and breeder reactor combinations are considered to be sustainable or renewable sources of energy. In 2006 it
14630-490: The mass fish death. The legal battle continued for 17 years. At the end of 1980, Con Edison formally agreed to abandon its Storm King Mountain project, reduce fish kills at its power plants on the Hudson, and establish a $ 12 million research fund. The groundbreaking 1965 "Scenic Hudson Decision" by United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for the first time gave citizens without financial interest in
14784-488: The mid-1970s anti-nuclear activism gained a wider appeal and influence, and nuclear power began to become an issue of major public protest. In some countries, the nuclear power conflict "reached an intensity unprecedented in the history of technology controversies". The increased public hostility to nuclear power led to a longer license procurement process, more regulations and increased requirements for safety equipment, which made new construction much more expensive. In
14938-437: The most common type of reactor, this concentration is too low, and it must be increased by a process called uranium enrichment . In civilian light water reactors, uranium is typically enriched to 3.5–5% uranium-235. The uranium is then generally converted into uranium oxide (UO 2 ), a ceramic, that is then compressively sintered into fuel pellets, a stack of which forms fuel rods of the proper composition and geometry for
15092-418: The most hazardous substances in nuclear waste), there is an estimated 160,000 years worth of uranium in total conventional resources and phosphate ore at the price of 60–100 US$ /kg. However, reprocessing is expensive, possibly dangerous and can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. One analysis found that uranium prices could increase by two orders of magnitude between 2035 and 2100 and that there could be
15246-428: The natural process of uranium dissolved from the surface area of the ocean floor, both of which maintain the solubility equilibria of seawater concentration at a stable level. Some commentators have argued that this strengthens the case for nuclear power to be considered a renewable energy . The normal operation of nuclear power plants and facilities produce radioactive waste , or nuclear waste. This type of waste
15400-432: The near future. Most nuclear power plants use thermal reactors with enriched uranium in a once-through fuel cycle . Fuel is removed when the percentage of neutron absorbing atoms becomes so large that a chain reaction can no longer be sustained, typically three years. It is then cooled for several years in on-site spent fuel pools before being transferred to long-term storage. The spent fuel, though low in volume,
15554-402: The new legislation, it shall be unlawful to discharge any radiological substance into the Hudson River in connection with the decommissioning of a nuclear power plant. This put a stop on Holtec International's (the company decommissioning Indian Point) plan to dump wastewater into the Hudson. Since October 2023, Indian Point has transferred all spent nuclear fuel to dry cask storage. With this,
15708-431: The newer requirements were put in place after the plant was complete. On December 1, 2007, Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano , New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer called a press conference with the participation of environmental advocacy groups Clearwater and Riverkeeper to announce their united opposition to the re-licensing of Indian Point. On April 3, 2010,
15862-551: The numbers but responded in a release that "The NRC results to date should not be interpreted as definitive estimates of seismic risk," because the NRC does not rank plants by seismic risk. In July 2013, Entergy engineers reassessed the risk of seismic damage to Unit 3 and submitted their findings in a report to the NRC. It was found that risk leading to reactor core damage is 1 in 106,000 reactor years using U.S. Geological Survey data; and 1 in 141,000 reactor years using Electric Power Research Institute data. Unit 3's previous owner,
16016-416: The once-through fuel cycle. While reprocessing reduces the volume of high-level waste, it does not reduce the fission products that are the primary causes of residual heat generation and radioactivity for the first few centuries outside the reactor. Thus, reprocessed waste still requires an almost identical treatment for the initial first few hundred years. Reprocessing of civilian fuel from power reactors
16170-415: The organization. Riverkeeper President Paul Gallay said of Kennedy, "Nobody has been more important to Riverkeeper than Bobby Kennedy" and credited him with playing a key role in the closure of the Indian Point nuclear plant. In 1986, HRFA merged with its Hudson Riverkeeper Fund under the name Riverkeeper. In 2000, a majority of Riverkeeper's board sided with Kennedy who insisted on rehiring William Wegner,
16324-436: The original expiration date, the units were allowed to continue operation past this date while the NRC considered the renewal application. Efforts to shut down Indian Point were led by the non-profit environmental group Riverkeeper . Riverkeeper argued that the power plant killed fish by taking in river water for cooling and that the power plant could cause "apocalyptic damage" if attacked by terrorists. In 2004, Indian Point
16478-501: The outcome the right (legal standing) to sue for protection of the environment, including "the preservation of natural beauty and national historic sites". Riverkeeper has advocated for the closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Riverkeeper argued that the power plant killed fish by taking in river water for cooling and that the power plant could cause "apocalyptic damage" if attacked by terrorists. Riverkeeper argued that
16632-469: The particular reactor. After some time in the reactor, the fuel will have reduced fissile material and increased fission products, until its use becomes impractical. At this point, the spent fuel will be moved to a spent fuel pool which provides cooling for the thermal heat and shielding for ionizing radiation. After several months or years, the spent fuel is radioactively and thermally cool enough to be moved to dry storage casks or reprocessed. Uranium
16786-408: The planning zone in the extremely unlikely event it would be needed." In an interview, Entergy executives said they doubt that the evacuation zone would be expanded to reach as far as New York City. Indian Point is protected by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including a National Guard base within a mile of the facility, as well as by private on-site security forces. During
16940-496: The plant [CPV's proposed Valley Energy Center, a plant powered by natural gas] to the State depended at least in part, on whether [Indian Point] was going to be shut down." Amid growing calls to close the plant, environmentalists expressed concern about increased carbon emissions if the plant were to close, as nuclear power plants do not directly generate carbon dioxide. A study undertaken by Environmental Progress found that closure of
17094-475: The plant for nearly a year during construction of the towers. Regulators denied Entergy's request to install fish screens that they said would improve fish mortality more than new cooling towers. Advocates in favor of recertifying Indian Point included former New York City mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudolph W. Giuliani . Bloomberg said that "Indian Point is critical to the city's economic viability". The New York Independent System Operator maintains that in
17248-606: The plant from Entergy and dismantling it. A report by the New York Building Congress, a construction industry association , has said that NYC will need additional natural gas pipelines to accommodate the city's increasing demand for energy. Holtec faced criticism from the community for its plan to discharge wastewater from Indian Point into the Hudson River . Legislation then passed in the NY State Senate and Assembly to prevent any discharge into
17402-432: The plant had ever posed a significant hazard to local residents or wildlife. In 2015, it was reported that the plant's cooling system killed over a billion fish eggs and larvae annually, despite the use of fish screens . According to one NRC report from 2010, as few as 38% of alewives survive the screens. On September 14, 2015, a state hearing began in regards to the deaths of fish in the river, and possibly implementing
17556-407: The plant had shown substantial improvement in its safety culture in the previous two years. A 2003 report commissioned by then-Governor George Pataki concluded that the "current radiological response system and capabilities are not adequate to...protect the people from an unacceptable dose of radiation in the event of a release from Indian Point". More recently, in December 2012 Entergy commissioned
17710-516: The plant would cause power emissions to jump 29% in New York, equivalent to the emissions from 1.4 million additional cars on New York roads. In April 2016, climate scientist James Hansen took issue with calls to shut the plant down, including those from Senator Bernie Sanders , calling the efforts "an orchestrated campaign to mislead the people of New York about the essential safety and importance of Indian Point nuclear plant to address climate change ." Units 2 and 3 were both originally licensed by
17864-577: The plant, while the legislature approved a bill to streamline the process of siting replacement plants. Nuclear energy industry figures and analysts responded to Cuomo's initiative by questioning whether replacement electrical plants could be certified and built rapidly enough to replace Indian Point, given New York state's "cumbersome regulation process", and also noted that replacement power from out of state sources will be hard to obtain because New York has weak ties to generation capacity in other states. They said that possible consequences of closure will be
18018-497: The predicted increase was expected to be in Asia. As of 2018, there were over 150 nuclear reactors planned including 50 under construction. In January 2019, China had 45 reactors in operation, 13 under construction, and planned to build 43 more, which would make it the world's largest generator of nuclear electricity. As of 2021, 17 reactors were reported to be under construction. China built significantly fewer reactors than originally planned. Its share of electricity from nuclear power
18172-511: The primary motivations of the anti-nuclear movement , which contends that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment, citing the potential for accidents like the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, and is too expensive/slow to deploy when compared to alternative sustainable energy sources. Nuclear fission was discovered in 1938 after over four decades of work on
18326-630: The private sector. The first organization to develop practical nuclear power was the U.S. Navy , with the S1W reactor for the purpose of propelling submarines and aircraft carriers . The first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus , was put to sea in January 1954. The S1W reactor was a pressurized water reactor . This design was chosen because it was simpler, more compact, and easier to operate compared to alternative designs, thus more suitable to be used in submarines. This decision would result in
18480-554: The public service commission and the cost allocation amongst themselves was approved by FERC. NYPA and LIPA are also receiving a portion. The cost of the TOTS projects has been estimated in the range of $ 27 million to $ 228 million. An energy highway initiative was also prompted by this order (generally speaking, additional lines on the Edic-Pleasant Valley and the Oakdale-Fraser transmission corridors), which
18634-556: The public service commission investigation in perspective, most electric outage investigations conducted by the commission are in response to outages with a known number of affected retail electric customers. By November 17, 2017, the NYISO accepted Indian Point's retirement notice. In January 2017, the governor's office announced a phased closure of Indian Point by 2020 (Unit 2) and 2021 (Unit 3). Unit 2 shut down in April 2020 and Unit 3 shut down in April 2021. Holtec will be purchasing
18788-462: The reaction rate is contained by control rods that absorb excess neutrons. The controllability of nuclear reactors depends on the fact that a small fraction of neutrons resulting from fission are delayed . The time delay between the fission and the release of the neutrons slows changes in reaction rates and gives time for moving the control rods to adjust the reaction rate. The life cycle of nuclear fuel starts with uranium mining . The uranium ore
18942-517: The refueling and other related projects for Unit 3, of which $ 30,000,000 went to employee salaries. The unit was brought back online on March 25, 2015. A June 2015 report by a lobby group called Nuclear Energy Institute found that the operation of Indian Point generates $ 1.3 billion of annual economic output in local counties, $ 1.6 billion statewide, and $ 2.5 billion across the United States. In 2014, Entergy paid $ 30,000,000 in state and local property taxes. The total tax revenue (direct and secondary)
19096-637: The restart of another ten reactors. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in July 2022 announced that the country should consider building advanced reactors and extending operating licences beyond 60 years. As of 2022, with world oil and gas prices on the rise, while Germany is restarting its coal plants to deal with loss of Russian gas that it needs to supplement its Energiewende , many other countries have announced ambitious plans to reinvigorate ageing nuclear generating capacity with new investments. French President Emmanuel Macron announced his intention to build six new reactors in coming decades, placing nuclear at
19250-568: The risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Indian Point was 1 in 30,303 for Unit 2 and 1 in 10,000 for Unit 3. Msnbc.com reported based on the NRC data that "Indian Point nuclear reactor No. 3 has the highest risk of earthquake damage in the country, according to new NRC risk estimates provided to msnbc.com." According to the report, the reason is that plants in known earthquake zones like California were designed to be more quake-resistant than those in less affected areas like New York. The NRC did not dispute
19404-421: The risk of an off-site radiological release is significantly lower, and the types of possible accidents significantly fewer. In 2022, Riverkeeper called on New York to reject a $ 3 billion clean energy plan that would have supplied New York City with hydropower and lessened New York's reliance on fossil fuels . Riverkeeper opposed the hydropower plan, saying "This is not emission-free power." Riverkeeper's position
19558-450: The science of radioactivity and the elaboration of new nuclear physics that described the components of atoms . Soon after the discovery of the fission process, it was realized that a fissioning nucleus can induce further nucleus fissions, thus inducing a self-sustaining chain reaction. Once this was experimentally confirmed in 1939, scientists in many countries petitioned their governments for support for nuclear fission research, just on
19712-512: The second-largest low-carbon power source after hydroelectricity . As of November 2024, there are 415 civilian fission reactors in the world , with overall capacity of 374 GW, 66 under construction and 87 planned, with a combined capacity of 72 GW and 84 GW, respectively. The United States has the largest fleet of nuclear reactors, generating almost 800 TWh of low-carbon electricity per year with an average capacity factor of 92%. The average global capacity factor
19866-426: The spent fuel becomes less radioactive than natural uranium ore. Commonly suggested methods to isolate LLFP waste from the biosphere include separation and transmutation , synroc treatments, or deep geological storage. Thermal-neutron reactors , which presently constitute the majority of the world fleet, cannot burn up the reactor grade plutonium that is generated during the reactor operation. This limits
20020-547: The spent fuel pool for at least five years before being transferred to dry casks. In 2008, researchers from Columbia University 's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory located a previously unknown active seismic zone running from Stamford, Connecticut , to the Hudson Valley city of Peekskill, New York—the intersection of the Stamford-Peekskill line with the well-known Ramapo Fault —which passes less than
20174-449: The state public utility commission , the department of health , and the department of environmental conservation . To put the public service commission investigation in perspective: most electric outage investigations conducted by the commission are in response to outages with a known number of affected retail electric customers. By November 17, 2017, the NYISO accepted Indian Point's retirement notice. In 1997, Indian Point Unit 3
20328-599: The state of New York (i.e., by the NRC in addition to FERC, the NYSPSC, the NYISO, the NYSDEC, and the EPA). On a forced outage basis – incidents related to equipment failure that force a plant stoppage – it provides a much more reliable operating history than most other power plants in New York. Beginning at the end of 2015, Governor Cuomo began to ramp up political action against the Indian Point facility, opening an investigation with
20482-410: The state's power demand is in the New York City area and about two-fifths of the state's generation originates there. Units 2 and 3 were each refueled on a two-year cycle. At the end of each fuel cycle, one unit was brought offline for refueling and maintenance activities. On March 2, 2015, Indian Point 3 was taken offline for 23 days to perform its refueling operations. Entergy invested $ 50,000,000 in
20636-453: The station maintained a capacity factor of greater than 93%. This was consistently higher than the nuclear industry average and than other forms of generation. The reliability helped offset the severe price volatility of other energy sources (e.g., natural gas) and the indeterminacy of renewable electricity sources (e.g., solar, wind). Indian Point directly employed about 1,000 full-time workers. This employment created another 2,800 jobs in
20790-690: The station's two operating reactors generated about 2,000 megawatts ( MW e ) of electrical power, about 25% of New York City 's usage. The station is owned by Holtec International , and consists of three permanently deactivated reactors, Indian Point Units 1, 2, and 3. Units 2 and 3 were Westinghouse pressurized water reactors . Entergy purchased Unit 3 from the New York Power Authority in 2000 and Units 1 and 2 from Consolidated Edison in 2001. The original 40-year operating licenses for Units 2 and 3 expired in September 2013 and December 2015, respectively. Entergy had applied for license extensions and
20944-417: The then-current use rate. Light water reactors make relatively inefficient use of nuclear fuel, mostly using only the very rare uranium-235 isotope. Nuclear reprocessing can make this waste reusable, and newer reactors also achieve a more efficient use of the available resources than older ones. With a pure fast reactor fuel cycle with a burn up of all the uranium and actinides (which presently make up
21098-524: The use of a thorium fuel cycle in the third stage, as it has abundant thorium reserves but little uranium. Nuclear decommissioning is the process of dismantling a nuclear facility to the point that it no longer requires measures for radiation protection, returning the facility and its parts to a safe enough level to be entrusted for other uses. Due to the presence of radioactive materials, nuclear decommissioning presents technical and economic challenges. The costs of decommissioning are generally spread over
21252-457: The vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants . Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators in some space probes such as Voyager 2 . Reactors producing controlled fusion power have been operated since 1958, but have yet to generate net power and are not expected to be commercially available in
21406-549: The water quality of the Hudson. The river water is measured for salinity, oxygen, temperature, suspended sediment, chlorophyll and sewage. As of 2008, it is estimated that each year New York City's 460 Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) dump more than 27 billion gallons of raw sewage into the river and New York Harbor. Riverkeeper keeps a close watch for polluters and brings suits against corporations as large as Exxon and General Electric . The organization has often worked together with other environmental groups on issues affecting
21560-542: Was 272,539, an increase of 17.6% during the previous ten years. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 17,220,895, an increase of 5.1% since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include New York (41 miles to city center); Bridgeport, Conn. (40 miles); Newark, N.J. (39 miles); and Stamford, Conn. (24 miles). In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima incident in Japan, the State Department recommended that any Americans in Japan stay beyond fifty miles from
21714-563: Was 5% in 2019 and observers have cautioned that, along with the risks, the changing economics of energy generation may cause new nuclear energy plants to "no longer make sense in a world that is leaning toward cheaper, more reliable renewable energy". In October 2021, the Japanese cabinet approved the new Plan for Electricity Generation to 2030 prepared by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) and an advisory committee, following public consultation. The nuclear target for 2030 requires
21868-474: Was built to withstand an earthquake of 6.1 on the Richter scale . Entergy executives have also noted that "Indian Point had been designed to withstand an earthquake much stronger than any on record in the region, though not one as powerful as the quake that rocked Japan.", in comparison to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi incident. According to an August 2010 Nuclear Regulatory Commission study, the NRC's estimate of
22022-466: Was connected to the national power grid on 27 August 1956. In common with a number of other generation I reactors , the plant had the dual purpose of producing electricity and plutonium-239 , the latter for the nascent nuclear weapons program in Britain . The total global installed nuclear capacity initially rose relatively quickly, rising from less than 1 gigawatt (GW) in 1960 to 100 GW in
22176-477: Was constructed and is operational in Dover, New York as of the second quarter of 2020. An Indian Point contingency plan, initiated in 2012 by the NYSPSC under the administration of Cuomo, solicited energy solutions from which a Transmission Owner Transmission Solutions (TOTS) plan was selected. The TOTS projects provide 450 MW of additional transfer capability across a NYISO-defined electric transmission corridor in
22330-399: Was created as a direct outcome of the 1986 Chernobyl accident. The Chernobyl disaster played a major part in the reduction in the number of new plant constructions in the following years. Influenced by these events, Italy voted against nuclear power in a 1987 referendum, becoming the first country to completely phase out nuclear power in 1990. In the early 2000s, nuclear energy was expecting
22484-420: Was estimated that with seawater extraction, there was likely five billion years' worth of uranium resources for use in breeder reactors. Breeder technology has been used in several reactors, but as of 2006, the high cost of reprocessing fuel safely requires uranium prices of more than US$ 200/kg before becoming justified economically. Breeder reactors are however being developed for their potential to burn all of
22638-692: Was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951, at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho , which initially produced about 100 kW . In 1953, American President Dwight Eisenhower gave his " Atoms for Peace " speech at the United Nations , emphasizing the need to develop "peaceful" uses of nuclear power quickly. This was followed by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which allowed rapid declassification of U.S. reactor technology and encouraged development by
22792-436: Was in stark contrast with many other environmental and clean-energy advocates who argued that the plan was needed to shift the region towards greener energy. Riverkeeper argued that construction of hydropower dams have adverse environmental effects, but the hydropower station that New York was set to use had already been constructed which meant that most of the upfront environmental impact had already occurred. Riverkeeper became
22946-587: Was indefinitely stalled when its proposed southern converter station site was bought by the Town of Cortlandt in a land auction administered by Con Edison. As of October 1, 2018, the 650 MW plant built in Wawayanda, New York, by CPV Valley, is operating commercially. The CPV Valley plant has been associated with Governor Cuomo's close aid, Joe Percoco, and the associated corruption trial. A natural gas-fired power plant, Cricket Valley Energy Center rated at 1,100 MW,
23100-476: Was nearly $ 340,000,000 to local, state, and federal governments. According to the Village of Buchanan budget for 2016–2017, a payment in lieu of taxes in the amount of 2.62 million dollars was received in 2015–2016, and was projected to be 2.62 million dollars in 2016–2017 – the majority of which can be assumed to come from the Indian Point Energy Center. Over the last decade of its operation,
23254-401: Was one of the five largest states in terms of nuclear capacity and generation, accounting for approximately 5% of the national totals and Indian Point provided 39% of the state's nuclear capacity. In 2017, Indian Point generated approximately 10% of the state's electricity needs, and 25% of the electricity used in New York City and Westchester County. The New York Power Authority, which supplies
23408-557: Was operated with uranium dioxide fuel for the remainder of its life. The reactor was shut down on October 31, 1974, because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. All spent fuel was removed from the reactor vessel by January 1976, but the reactor still stands. The licensee, Entergy, plans to decommission Unit 1 when Unit 2 is decommissioned. Indian Point 2 and 3 are four-loop Westinghouse pressurized water reactors both of similar design. Units 2 and 3 were completed in 1974 and 1976, respectively. Unit 2 had
23562-617: Was removed from the NRC's list of plants that receive increased attention from the regulator. An engineer for the NRC noted that the plant had been experiencing increasingly fewer problems during inspections. On March 10, 2009 the Indian Point Power Plant was awarded the fifth consecutive top safety rating for annual operations by the Federal regulators. According to the Hudson Valley Journal News ,
23716-518: Was the subject of a documentary, Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable , directed by filmmaker Rory Kennedy and starring Riverkeeper lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. On September 23, 2007, the anti-nuclear group Friends United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE) filed legal papers with the NRC opposing the relicensing of Unit 2. The group contended that the NRC improperly held Indian Point to less stringent design requirements. The NRC responded that
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