In the long battle over Indian Point, some have seen signs of political meddling. We talk about the environment and that’s not environmentally sound.”Īs the Biden administration pushes for a non-fossil fuel-dependent energy policy, there will inevitably be a period in which more electricity is produced using gas-powered systems, before wind and solar take up the slack. ![]() “I think people really didn’t understand nuclear and I’m hugely disappointed that a clean energy plant is being replaced by two gas plants. “It’s a sad day, the end of an era, and it marks the loss of our largest employer and tax payer,” the mayor of Buchanan, Theresa Knickerbocker, told the Guardian. A lengthy decommissioning process will cut jobs by two-thirds. The plant has provided about 1,000 well-paid jobs and half the town’s tax revenue. On Friday in the town of Buchanan, the mood was dark. Under a 2017 agreement between Cuomo, Riverkeeper and Entergy, another reactor was shut down a year ago. According to operator Entergy, for New York City and the lower Hudson Valley that figure was about 25%. In 2019, Indian Point provided 13% of New York state power. The plant has provided about 1,000 well-paid jobs. Reactor operators Eugene Vanderbeek, left, and Andrew Goerres monitor Unit 3 from a control room at Indian Point Energy Center. “Who knows what would happen now with Indian Point?”įurthermore, nuclear power has lost favour as the cost of clean-energy renewables declines. “The plant was built to withstand an airplane crash in the 70s,” New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said recently. In part, the plant was doomed by the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 – the pilots of the hijacked planes used the river for navigation, alerting politicians to the vulnerability of the reactors on the banks of the Hudson. ![]() “There are 20 million people living within 50 miles of Indian Point and there is no way to evacuate them in case of a radiological release,” Paul Gallay, president of the environmental group Riverkeeper, told the Associated Press. At the same time, wind and sun over the Hudson River alongside the plant pointed to the state’s energy future.Įnvironmentalists and politicians have described the plant as a threat to millions. At 11am the last of the ageing plant’s reactor turbines shut down, ending a long political standoff.
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