Indian Point Meltdown Could Wreak Havoc on Area
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Radiation from a nuclear meltdown at the Indian Point power plant in Westchester County, N.Y., could cause damage throughout Fairfield County, according to a new report commissioned by New York state, Norwalk-area emergency response personnel said Thursday that on the basis of the new report, Indian Point’s response plan should be revised to incorporate all areas that could suffer from an accident or an attack on the plant.
“No plan is in effect [for the Norwalk region] because we always basically followed the standard in place that we’re outside the 10-mile radius,” Glenn Iannaccone, deputy director of emergency management for Norwalk, said.
The new report, by James Lee Witt Associates, a crisis consulting firm, analyzed the emergency plans of the Indian Point plant and found them to be insufficient.
The response plan covered only a 10-mile radius around the Indian Point plant, located in Buchanan, N.Y. But the Witt report said that areas up to 50 miles away could be exposed to unacceptable doses of radiation in the event of a nuclear release.
Norwalk falls just inside a 30-mile radius of the Indian Point plant.
If a nuclear meltdown occurred and a cloud of radiation settled on Norwalk, Iannaccone said, the safest thing would be to have people stay indoors and treat the area like a vast contamination spill.
“Without seeing the report, though, then I don’t know what’s the case, and until we can confirm that, we can’t really make any changes,” Iannaccone, who also serves as Norwalk’s fire marshal, said.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Gov. George Pataki (R-N.Y.), Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said hundreds of thousands of Connecticut citizens could be in danger as a result of Indian Point’s inadequate nuclear emergency response plan. He called on the governor to support a temporary shutdown of Indian Point “in the interest of public safety.”
“In the event of a nuclear emergency, people will choose to evacuate an area far greater than 10 miles from Indian Point, possibly including a significant portion of Connecticut,” Blumenthal, a Democrat, wrote.
According to the Witt report, Indian Point’s emergency response plan does not contain a written agreement with Connecticut emergency response organizations about how to respond to a nuclear disaster, nor does it have procedures for alerting and mobilizing Connecticut emergency personnel.
On Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Association refused to withdraw its approval of Indian Point’s current response plan, rejecting a petition signed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). The petition asked FEMA to rescind its recommendation to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Indian Point’s plan be accepted, which is a requirement for a nuclear plant’s license.
An estimated 11.8 million people live within 50 miles of Indian Point, far more than around any of the nation’s other nuclear power plants, according to the Associated Press.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
