The Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, New York, is seen from across the Hudson River. (photo: Mike Segar/Reuters)
Did We Almost Lose New York?
By
Harvey Wasserman, EcoWatch
16 May 15
or the third time in a decade, a major fire/explosion has ripped apart
a transformer at the Indian Point reactor complex.
News reports have taken great care to emphasize that
the accident happened in the “non nuclear” segment of the plant.
Ironically, the disaster spewed more than 15,000 gallons of oil into
the Hudson River, infecting it with a toxic sheen that carried downstream for
miles. Entergy, the nuke’s owner, denies there were PCBs in this transformer.
It also denies numerous studies showing serious
radioactive health impacts on people throughout the region.
You can choose whether you want to believe the company
in either case.
But PCBs were definitely spread by the last IP transformer fire.
They re-poisoned a precious liquid lifeline where activists have spent decades
dealing with PCBs previously dumped in by General Electric, which designed the
reactors at Fukushima.
Meanwhile, as always, the nuclear industry hit the
automatic play button to assure us all that there was “no danger” to the public
and “no harmful release” of radiation.
But what do we really know about what happened and
could have happened this time around?
At an integrated system like a reactor complex, are
there really any significant components whose impacts are totally removed from
the ability to touch off a nuclear disaster?
A “non nuclear” earthquake, 120 kilometers away,
caused Fukushima One to melt, and then explode. “Non nuclear” backup power
sources failed after being flooded by a “non nuclear” tsunami, leading to still
more melt-downs and explosions. “Non nuclear” air crashes, either accidental or
as at 9/11, or bombs or terror attacks could rapidly convert Indian Point and
any other commercial reactor into an unimaginable nuclear disaster.
At Indian Point, “non nuclear” gas pipelines flow
dangerously close to highly vulnerable reactors. In an utterly insane proposal
that almost defies description, corporate powers want to run another gas
pipeline more than 40 inches in diameter within a scant few yards of the
reactor epicenters. An explosion that could obliterate much of the site would
of course be “non nuclear” in origin. But the consequences could be
sufficiently radioactive to condemn millions of humans to horrifying health
consequences and render the entire region a permanent wasteland. Indian Point,
in Buchanan, New York, is about 45 miles north of Manhattan.
The real dangers of this most recent fiasco are
impossible to assess. But Indian Point sits all-to-near the “non nuclear”
Ramapo seismic fault line which is more than capable of reducing much of it to
rubble. Twice now—in Ohio and Virginia—earthquakes have done significant damage
to American reactors. With 20 million people close downwind and trillions of
dollars worth of dense-packed property, a Fukushima-scale hit at Indian Point
would easily qualify as an Apocalyptic event.
But its owners would not be financially liable beyond
the sliver of cash they’ve contributed to the $12-odd billion federal fund
meant to cover such events. Likely damage to health and property would soar
into the trillions, but this is none of Entergy’s concern. Small wonder the
company has no real incentive to spend on safety, especially when a captured
regulatory agency lets it do pretty much whatever it wants.
Aside from the magnitude of its kill zone, Indian
Point is unique in its level of opposition. Andrew Cuomo, governor of the
nation’s fourth-most populous state (behind California, Texas and Florida), has
been demanding its closure for
years. New York and numerous downwind cities, towns and counties have gone
to court on issues ranging from water quality to evacuation to earthquake
dangers and more.
Even the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) concedes
that Indian Point—among other reactors—has been out of compliance on simple
fire protection standards for years. To “cure” the problem, the NRC—which
depends financially on the industry it’s meant to regulate—has simply issued
waivers allowing Indian Point to operate without meeting established fire
safety standards.
Unique (so far) among American reactors, Indian Point
Unit Two doesn’t even have a license to operate.
But Unit Three’s is about to expire, with no hint the
NRC might actually shut either. So if America’s atomic reactors are now allowed
to operate without actual licenses, and with known safety violations, what’s
the point of any regulation at all?
Meanwhile the paltry power generated by these antiquated
clunkers can be gotten far more reliably, cheaply, cleanly and safely from
renewable sources and increased efficiency. But since that doesn’t fit
Entergy’s peculiar bottom line, and since its parent industry still has
sufficient political pull to keep going, we all remain at risk.
So in an industry where technical information is
closely held, we can’t fully evaluate the threat imposed by this latest
malfeasance. The only thing certain is that it will happen again.
This newest fire at Indian Point should remind us that
we are all hostage to an industry that operates in open defiance of the laws of
the public, the economy and basic physics.
Sooner or later all three will demand their due. We
can passively hope our planet and our species will survive the consequences.
Or we can redouble our efforts to make sure all these
reactors are shut before such a reckoning dumps us into the abyss.
© 2015 Reader Supported News
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to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.
Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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