Indian Point Near New York City on List of High-Risk Nuclear Plants

March 17, 2011 -- The crisis in Japan has reignited intense debate among lawmakers about the safety of U.S. nuclear-power plants; nowhere more so than at Indian Point, where two aging reactors are 24 miles north of New York City.

"We are using up our reservoir of good luck," said Richard Brodsky, a former New York State legislator who last week lost a lawsuit on the level of insulation required around electrical cables at Indian Point. "The chances of an accident at Indian Point are small but the consequences are so dramatic."

An analysis by the Daily Beast today ranked reactors at the Buchanan, N.Y., plant as the most dangerous among 65 U.S. nuclear facilities, based on risk of natural disaster, safety performance and the surrounding population.

Also ranking high on the list were San Onofre in San Clemente, Calif., Limerick in Limerick, Pa., Dresden in Morris, Ill., and Diablo Canyon in Avila, Calif.

Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, rejected the list, saying the NRC doesn't do risk rankings. "Currently, the operating nuclear power plants in the U.S. remain safe, with no need for immediate action," she said by e-mail.

Screnci said that even though "overall seismic risk estimates remain small," the NRC has identified 27 reactors "where we need to complete additional analysis. That's being done. The Indian Point Units are two of those."

Politicians are not satisfied with the prospect of additional analysis. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Wednesday called for the plant to be closed, pointing out that Reactor 3 at Indian Point sits on the Ramapo Fault.

Rep. Eliot Engel, a Democrat whose district includes parts of New York City and Westchester County, pointed out that the planes that attacked the World Trade Center flew over Indian Point and said its license should not be renewed.

But another local congresswoman, Rep. Nan Hayworth, a Republican, says the plant should stay online. "It is a crucial source of carbon-clean power," she said.

And having toured the plant and spoken to people in the community, she added, "I have not heard anything that makes me think Indian Point's continuing operation poses a threat."