“State Senator Liz Kruger, a Manhattan Democrat who has called for the closure of the Indian Point nuclear facility in Westchester since 2003, has raised the alarm, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, about the risks the aging nuclear facility poses to the 20 million people — most of them New Yorkers — who live and work within a 50 mile radius of the facility.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is evaluating renewal applications for Indian Point’s two reactors, whose licenses expire in 2013 and 2015.

Governor Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor Duffy have addressed concerns over Indian Point with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), but that’s not enough, said Kruger.

The State has no plan to develop capacity and reduce consumption in order to take Indian Point offline.

Indian Point’s location would mean that, in the event of an earthquake, 20 million people would be trapped in the contamination zone, because there is no quick way to evacuate that many people.

Indian Point officials argue that the plant can withstand the “strongest earthquake anticipated in the area,” but as the Indian Coast Tsunami, the Gulf Coast Hurricane, and the Haiti and Japan earthquakes have proven, we can no longer accurately predict the scale of natural disasters.

And so, in an increasingly unstable global climate — both natural and geopolitical — we are effectively playing Russian Roulette with the lives of the 20 million people who live near Indian Point.

Kruger’s full statement in PDF.

The legacy of Indian Point:  used fuel rods with no place to go [CBS Local.]”

To view the complete editorial, click the link below:

http://bayridgejournal.blogspot.com/2011/04/liz-kruger-close-indian-point.html