Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant Denied Water Permit

[kristopher]

The NY Times explains, "The ruling concerned the cooling system at Indian Point Units 2 and 3, which were commissioned in the early 1970s. (Indian Point 1 was shut down in 1974.) Both take in enormous volumes of river water — a combined 2.5 billion gallons a day, or more than twice the average daily water consumption of all of New York City — and use it to create steam for turbines and to cool the reactors. The water is then pumped back into the Hudson, 20 or 30 degrees hotter." The intake system "traps and kills eggs, larvae and young fish in the river, including the endangered shortnose sturgeon and the federally protected Atlantic sturgeon," according to the Times Herald-Record.

Indian Point provides power to 2 million homes in Westchester County and NYC. Its critics say that it can build more state-of-the art cooling units for $200-300 million, but an Entergy spokesman says better cooling towers would cost $1 billion and take 15 years for approval. Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester), who has fought against the plant, said, "This is finally the definitive ruling about the massive destruction Indian Point has caused for the river. This is the beginning of the end of this massive destruction of the river."...

http://gothamist.com/2010/04/04/indian_point_nuclear_power_plant_de.php