I love that we were assigned this blog because this all takes place close to where my house in New York is!
Indian Point is a nuclear power plant located on the Hudson River about 35 miles from NYC. There are two active nuclear reactors that are located there now that were built in the 70s.
The reactors currently provide 13% of the power used in new york city today. There have a lot of controversy over whether these plants should be kept open, thought they are set to close in a couple year, or if they should be shut down now. The governor of NY, Andrew Cuomo has a strong opposition towards the continuation of operations with these plants, although, mayor Bloomberg of the NYC gives his full support of keeping these plants running.
Several pros and cons play out as followed:
Pro- Carbon-free electricity
Con-Risk of catastrophe
Con- long lived nuclear waste
Con- cost
Con- uranium mining
Other thoughts:
Currently NY gets about 15% of its energy from Indian Point. If the plant ends up closing NY would then have to find somewhere else to get its power from.
20 million people live within about 50 miles of the nuclear plant- many say that in the event of a serious accident, many may not have a clear evacuation route.
References:
http://theenergycollective.com/pmlydon/78423/indian-point-nuclear-plant-unsafe
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/nuclear-power-pro-con
http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/forums/2-town-issues/9123-close-indian-point.html
I liked the way you outlined your post, you listed the pros and cons clearly and gave your personal opinion. I agree that there are more cons than pro, it needs to be a pure and safe nuclear unit.