Another Fukushima Waiting to Happen?
Nuclear energy is one of the most important and useful ways to harness energy, but at the same time many people around the world are very afraid of it. Although it may not be the cleanest it can be, quite yet, it is still the cleanest while being able to produce at any time and a lot more, unlike wind or solar energy. The American people are especially afraid of it, even more so after the recent disaster of Fukushima. For this reason of possible disaster, American citizens have tried to protest the opening or re-certifying of nuclear power plants.
The Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) is a nuclear power plant in Buchanan, New York. Its located right on the east of the Hudson River, 38 miles away from New York City (Halbfinger). IPEC generates approximately 30% of the electricity used in NYC and and Westchester County, around 2,000 megawatts of electrical power (safesecurevital.com). The plant is under the bigger corporation of Entergy Nuclear Northeast, who is under Entergy Corporation.
This plant obviously provides a a good amount of energy to a city that uses more energy than most. For this reason alone, it is necessary to have nuclear energy in the area, providing the city’s energy. Using nuclear energy to provide a quarter of the city’s energy helps the environment in numerous ways, rather than energy from coal or oil. Because of the use of nuclear energy, the electricity that the city uses will produce less waste, helping all the surrounding areas… Like New Jersey, my home state of the Armpit of America, where most of New York’s waste goes. I can just say that I am totally for them having less waste, so that I can hear less of the “oh NJ smells” comments, and for the health of the environment obviously. In addition to providing cleaner energy, the power plant provides jobs to many in the area, improving the economy. It supplies at least 1,100 people with jobs, and puts at least $200 million back into the local economy (safesecurevital.com).
The concerns, however, are that the plant is not up to date with the government’s standards and that their licenses are no longer up to date (Halbfinger). The plant has federal licensees for their two reactors, which were built in the 70s, over 40 years ago (Halbfinger). Because they are so old, they do not work the way the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s standards require. This has created scared citizens and protesters, who want the plant to be shut down or want Entergy to build new reactors that will abide by the new standards. Entergy, however, does not want, nor does it see a need to build new ones. This is probably because it will cost the corporate about $1 billion, and will close the plant for almost a whole year, making them lose too many profits.
The plant also pollutes the water in the Hudson and as a result kills many fish in the river. As a nuclear plant, it needs water to cool the reactors, and because of its proximity to the Hudson, it uses the river’s water. This wouldn’t be such a problem, however, it puts the water back into the river after it is done using it (Riverkeeper.org). This water now has radioactive material in it that then pollutes the rest of the water. This polluted water kills fish, specifically the shortnose sturgeon, which is an endangered species (Halbfinger). Along with the killing of fish and polluting of water, it has had past problems with explosions, radioactivity leakage, and other dangerous events (shutdownindianpointnow.org). Lastly, according to the USGS the most dangerous nuclear plant in all of America is Indian Point (Dedman). This is because it has the highest chance of a being hit by an earthquake, since it lies between 2 faults (Dedman).
The question now is, should the government shut the plant down or are the benefits worth the dangers? Should it force the company to build these new reactors, whether it wants to or not? I think that the plant can be a good use of clean energy and it could help the area in both energy and the economy. However, I also feel that if all this is true, that it pollutes water, kills fish, and has has many problems, it should be fixed. New reactors should be put in if it will make it safer, no matter the cost.
http://www.safesecurevital.com/#
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/nyregion/04indian.html?_r=1
http://www.shutdownindianpointnow.org/
http://www.riverkeeper.org/campaigns/stop-polluters/indian-point/radioactive-waste/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42103936/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/what-are-odds-us-nuke-plants-ranked-quake-risk/#.T1fpfRzyH3U