By SCOTT WALDMAN 5:16 a.m. | Dec. 28, 2015 2
New York’s nuclear energy landscape is poised to shift dramatically in 2016, as it shrinks by one reactor and as the governor readies a policy that would recognize nuclear as a key bridge fuel to a renewable-powered future.
At least one of the state’s six nuclear reactors may be shuttered, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is aggressively targeting two more, both at the Indian Point facility in Westchester, for closure. A fourth faces closure in less than two years, though a new Cuomo administration climate initiative could extend its life for at least another decade.
Collectively, the six reactors, housed at four plants, represent about 3,500 megawatts of power — enough to power more than 3 million homes — and contribute a third of the state’s power. As the state shifts toward renewable energy, under a mandate to power half its electrical grid with solar and wind by 2030, nuclear also supplies about 60 percent of its carbon-free power.
Closing just one reactor today, before any more renewable resources are built, could worsen air pollution by almost 10 percent, a market analysis by the global investment firm UBS found. Replacing that reactor could take hundreds of wind turbines or many thousands of solar panels.
The Cuomo administration is meanwhile targeting that facility on multiple fronts, including by rejecting its coastal certification, required by state regulators to protect waterways from development and industry.
The plant’s operator, Entergy, has won the battle over that certification so far, but the fight is expected to come before the state’s highest court in early 2016. Should Entergy lose before the Court of Appeals, it could be forced to cut a deal to close the plant in the next decade.
Both of Indian Point’s licenses are now expired, and whether to renew them — a process expected to take years — is largely up to the federal government. But the state has a say in a few key steps in that process, and it’s using it to pressure Entergy into closing Indian Point.
In November, Jim Malatras, Cuomo’s director of state operations, asked the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to oppose the plant’s relicensing, citing “embrittled reactor pressure vessels and fatigued metals on key reactor components” and saying there was no safety evacuation route for the 20 million people living within 50 miles of it in case of a serious accident. But the NRC hasn’t flagged that as an issue that should lead to the plant’s closure.
