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by Zaidee Stavely
HOST INTRO: For the first time in thirty years, nuclear energy companies are planning to build new power plants. Just as the industry plans its comeback, radioactive leaks have been found in nuclear reactors around the country. Leaks at Indian Point nuclear power plant, just 24 miles north of the Bronx on the Hudson River, have revived protests by community groups that want to close it down. On Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a public meeting in Peekskill, New York to discuss the leak with residents. Zaidee Stavely has the story.
NAR:
More than 400 people are packed into a catering hall just a mile down the road from the Indian Point nuclear power plant. The hall is considered by some a favorite of workers at the nuclear power plant to meet for lunch, but today it proves too small. Almost as soon as the meeting begins, police began turning people away at the door, angering the crowd.
TAPE: (Crowd yelling, "Let them in!").
NAR: The crowd includes local legislators, residents concerned about the leak, and activists from the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, or IPSEC, a group of 70 organizations that have wanted to close the plant since September 11, 2001, when they realized it could be a potential target for terrorists. Then last August, Entergy, the company that owns the plant at Indian Point, found radioactive water leaking into the ground. At first, the company believed it was coming from a spent-fuel pool where it cools radioactive rods under water. After drilling 23 wells on site to track the leak, Entergy is unsure where the water is coming from or how much of it there is. At the meeting, IPSEC representative Mark Jacobs seizes on this point.
AX:
Jacobs: How old are the leaks?
Audience: They don't know.
Jacobs: Where is this radioactive pool of underground water?
Audience: They don't know!
Jacobs: But we can be assured there is no risk to the public. You figure that out, because I can't!
(Applause).
NAR:
Entergy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say there's no risk to the public because none of the communities nearby the plant drink water from the ground or from the Hudson River. Elevated levels of radioactive elements tritium and strontium 90 have only been found in groundwater under the plant, and officials say the radiation cannot go anywhere else but the river, which would dilute the dosage of radiation to .1 percent of drinking water standards. Even without the leak, the plant already legally discharges a much larger amount of radiation into the river. Nevertheless, Indian Point Vice President Fred Dacimo says Entergy is still committed to cleaning it up.
AX: Dacimo:
None of us at Indian Point, and I speak for the 1200 people plus who work there, like the fact that these isotopes are making their way to the river. We're doing everything in our power to stop this and we will do whatever it takes.
NAR: The licenses for the Indian Point reactors will expire in 2013 and 2015. Entergy is expected to apply this year for a new license to operate the plant for another 20 years. It also plans to apply to build a new power plant in Louisiana or Mississippi. For those who oppose it's relicensing, the leak is another reason to close Indian Point down. Garrison resident Miriam Wagner says she is more worried about the danger of a radioactive accident if the plant is targeted by terrorists than she is about the leak.
AX: Wagner:
I'm not that frightened about the leak, but I thought this is another event that is focusing on Indian Point, so I thought I really do want to come down and be present.
NAR: But many residents at the meeting were concerned that the leak could harm fish in the river or eventually seep into groundwater in other areas. Both tritium and strontium-90 are linked to cancer, but strontium-90 is more dangerous because it is similar to calcium and can settle in bones and teeth. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan says what is released from the plant is a tiny fraction of all radiation that people are exposed to on a daily basis.
AX: Sheehan:
We're exposed to chest x-rays and dental x-rays, radiation from the sun, radiation if you fly on a plane, radon, I mean, there are many different sources of radioactivity.
NAR:
The opinions of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are met with scorn by community groups, that consider it to be not independent enough of the plant. Phillip Musegaas of the environmental organization Riverkeeper says the commission has not held Entergy to task.
AX: Musegaas:
The energy companies that own these plants, as long as they're not required to spend the money to really keep them running in top shape to keep these plants in top shape, they don't do it. Since energy deregulation these companies have one thing in mind, and that's making money.
The Entergy Corporation owns and operates nine nuclear power plants in the U.S. The Indian Point plant supplies 2000 megawatts of energy to Westchester County and the 5 boros of New York City. Zaidee Stavely, Columbia Radio News.