Looking for the political fight over Indian Point? Don't look here

Looking for the political fight over Indian Point? Don't look here
(Original publication: June 18, 2007) Journal News
Nothing lasts forever, not even licenses to operate nuclear power plants. The license for Indian Point 2 expires in 2013 and the license for Indian Point 3 expires in 2015.The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast's application to extend both for 20 years. The first public meetings on the application start later this month. The Editorial Board met last week with NRC licensing staff - P.T. Kuo, director of the license renewal division; Rani Franovich, licence renewal branch chief, and Bo Pham, manager for the Indian Point review. Excerpts from our discussion.
Why don't you run us through the re-licensing process. What does it entail?
Francovich: The process involves two parallel reviews, the safety review and the environmental reviews and there are submittals in the applications that are specific to each of those reviews. We are still in the process of performing our acceptance review. And that is where the NRC reviews both the environmental and safety submittals to verify that what is required by our regulations is indeed in the application. If we determine that those needs are met, we will officially accept the application and then there will be a 60-day window of opportunity to request a hearing. It also starts a 60-day scoping period for the environmental review that we did. A safety review is focused on how effective aging management will be for the continued period of operation, the additional 20 years it is being requested. So the focus of the safety review is to ensure that the plant will be maintained in a safe way so that is can continue to operate and meet all of its regulatory requirements in the future. The environmental review is conducted under the auspices of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It is essentially the staff's review of the environmental impacts associated with 20 additional units of operation and discloses those impacts to the public. We use that information to inform our decision making on whether or not to renew a license.
The NRC has repeatedly rejected calls for an Independent Safety Assessment of Indian Point. Could you tell us exactly what an ISA is and how that differs from what we're getting?
Franovich: The ISA is a focused inspection that is being called for at Indian Point and the commission has essentially stated that the reactor oversight process that we currently have in place really incorporates all the features of an ISA plus more inspection and direct oversight, and the commission has stated that the reactor oversight process is adequate to address any concerns or identify any performance issues at the plant and so that's why the request for an ISA has been declined in the past.
Critics contend that if we were looking fresh at that property in Buchanan, we would never approve of a nuclear power plant so close to these major population centers.
Pham: The NRC's answer to that is that we don't know; we haven't seen an application for that but we do have a process in place for license renewal as well as (for new-reactor) licensing. I can't agree or disagree with you on that point at all because I don't know what the outcome of that review, if it happens, would be.
The public concerns about these plants are pretty well known; the leaks of nuclear material have gotten a lot of press. Most of us don't understand how many shutdowns is an inordinate number or whether most of your plants have sirens that work or don't work. The results of the last two-year study said that eight safety violations were found. What does that tell us about these plants?
Franovich: Performance issues today at the plant do not factor in to the license renewal review because we have ways of addressing those performance issues today. What we need to look at is how effectively they are going to manage the aging facility.
Is it possible to reassure people that these performance issues are being taken care of?
Pham: From a whole week here of doing outreach with the communities and county officials, perhaps we need to do a better job of communicating directly. We're saying our regulations are written so that we don't overlap the regulations. The current oversight process is there to protect the public from the plant operating there today. Instead of sending the message that its not part of the license renewal process we should try to reassure the public that we do look at these things and we are concerned about security, safety and public health.
Editor: We'll have more on the issues revolving around relicensing at Indian Point. Check back in this space, LoHud.com and NewsCenter Now.