January 15, 2008

Renew Indian Point’s fission license

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

Throw the line

This is where the review process begins to look murky to those not familiar with nuclear plant relicensing. The safety of operations, a site’s emergency preparedness, and potential acts of terrorism are not considered by the environmental review process. Nor are issues related to the storage or disposal of high-level nuclear waste on plant property germane to the overall relicensing process.

Because every one of the issues raised by Spitzer and Cuomo is beyond the scope of the process, I expect the ALSB will deny the request to have the NRC consider them. If that happens, the New Yorkers could file in Federal Court to keep their stance in the public eye, possibly improving prospects for Democrats this national election year. But I suspect that they will lose in that venue, too. Using the courts to stretch out the relicensing process won’t help get Indian Point shut down now. NRC rules state that if a relicensing application is filed five years before a unit’s original license is set to expire, it can continue to operate until the NRC rules on the extension request. New York politics is a contact sport, and the tag team of Spitzer and Cuomo has put on its game face.

Reel ’em in

Here’s how you can tell the petition is just a political red herring: No opponent of Indian Point has proposed concrete ways to replace the plant’s 2,000-MW generating capacity, which supplies 11.5% of New York State’s electricity demand.

Indian Point operated with a 93% capacity factor last year. The Nuclear Energy Institute notes that the average wholesale cost of nuclear power in the U.S. is a low 1.72 cents/kWh. In the densely populated U.S. northeast and mid-Atlantic states, where building anything that makes electricity is anathema, economic baseload replacement power alternatives simply do not exist.

But then I have to remind myself that ensuring the region has an affordable and reliable electricity supply is not part of the reactor relicensing process. Should it be? I invite your opinions.
--Dr. Robert Peltier, PE, Editor-in-Chief