Indian Point nuke site still in trouble

I'm not anti-nuke at all, at least untill more enviornmentally freindly alternatives become viable.

Indian Point 2 is another matter, though. It's common knowledge that this is a plant that was designed and built during a much more secure time, and all those antiquated security defenses were grandfathered into a much more dangerous age. I worked there during the Gulf War, and security was an old, stale joke even then.

It wouldn't have been difficult or expensive to radically improve security at IP2 while I was there, but even though they were supposedly clearing a bit over $1M a day there was never any question of spending more on security then. Now, who knows? But how likely is it when you can see from way across the river (see above photo) that there have been no significant changes in the overall layout of the plant?

And if the reactor dome or fuel pool was ever breached, would you want to be downstream and downwind of Indian Point, like New York City is?

The concern always was that NYC needed the power. If they can do without IP2+3, like the link above claims, it seems that closing the plant and moving the spent fuel and other 'special nuclear materials' would be simple prudence.

Why the hell not?

The Unit 2 reactor should have been shut down long ago. The steam generators have had cracks for years. Every time the NRC threatens to shut the plant down, Con Ed (the plant owner at the time) would simply go into an outage (plant shutdown), weld up the cracks, and then start back up again. Shutting down a plant permanently sounds easier than it is. The reactor core will be hot for many years to come. Then there is the problem with the spent fuel. Indian Point has all the spent fuel on site since Unit 1 reactor went online. That is a lot of spent fuel that has to be looked out for.

When Unit 1 was first opened, there wasn’t the threat of modern day terrorists attacking us on the homeland. Then Units 2 and 3 were built next to Unit 1. Now you have three reactors, two active, and three sources for spent fuel. If you look at the site itself, it is virtually impossible to prevent a breach of the protected area (inner fence line within the owner controlled area). The trees on the North Hill go right up to the fences. Then there is the river front itself. As unsightly as it would be, the land around the plant should have been cleared away so as to make it harder for people to make it to the fence line undetected.

There are many other problems with the physical layout of the facility that was never addressed by the plant owners. If a nuclear plant in such a densely populated area cannot be well guarded, it should be shut down. This isn’t the late fifties/early sixties. Having worked there for two years, I can honestly say it would be far safer for the surrounding communities to shut the facility down.