RESIDENTS DEMAND WESTCHESTER COUNTY LEGISLATORS ACT ON EARLIER VOTE TO CLOSE INDIAN POINT

At a news conference residents will ask the Westchester County Legislature to fund the feasibility study to close Indian Point proposed by County Executive Andrew Spano.

WHITE PLAINS, December 19, 2002.

Westchester County Legislators will be put to the test this Thursday, December 19, as concerned residents hold a news conference at the Michaelian Office Building. They are calling on their elected officials to approve $500,000 for a feasibility study on the purchase or condemnation of the nuclear power plants by the county. The conference will take place at 11:00 am.

In November Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC) welcomed County Executive Andrew Spano’s proposed study to purchase and transform the plants into a non-nuclear power facility or to condemn Indian Point. Now it appears that the Westchester County Legislature, which voted unanimously in September 2002 to close the nuclear power plants located in Buchanan, New York, may be hedging from their earlier support of closing the plants.

In November Spano set aside up to $500,000 for the study in his 2003 budget proposal; at least half the money has been target by county legislators to be cut from the budget. Without this funding, the study would more than likely not occur, leaving residents of the county once again with no official plan to close the plants.

With the recent news of the suppressed, Entergy-commissioned security report from January 2002, indicating that security guards at Indian Point do not believe that they would be capable of thwarting an attack on the plants, IPSEC believes that this study is more important than ever to provide for the safety and welfare of residents living within the 50-mile radius of the plants.

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