House Hearing Criticizes Indian Point Evacuation Plans
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – House lawmakers accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at a hearing Tuesday of near-outright abandonment of a report that rejected the emergency preparedness plans of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. If attacked, the plant could emit radiation that would threaten all of Fairfield County.
Other House members said at the hearing that in an age of terrorism, the plant, in Buchanan, N.Y., poses too much of a threat to allow it to continue operating and that no plan could adequately protect the densely populated New York City suburbs – a sentiment that Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4) echoed.
“I am concerned about the security of our nation’s nuclear power plants,” Shays said Tuesday in an interview. “The fact is these plants present an ideal target for terrorists.”
Shays said the New York state-sponsored Witt report, released last month, which evaluated the plant’s emergency response plan, found that Indian Point’s planning failed to consider the possibility of a terrorist attack and that evacuation procedures to protect local residents from radiation poisoning were insufficient. The report was conducted by the crisis consulting firm James Lee Witt Associates, which is headed by a former FEMA director.
“In light of the significant problems identified by the Witt report, I requested the Nuclear Regulatory Commission close plant operations until the issues raised by the report are fully resolved,” Shays said, referring to the agency that decides if a plant can operate.
“It is critical that the standards used to certify emergency evacuation plans for nuclear power plants are strong enough to meet the post-September 11 reality,” he added.
The NRC has always relied on a certification from FEMA that an adequate emergency plan is in place before giving permission to continue operating, Hubert Miller, the NRC’s regional administrator, said at the hearing.
Last Friday, FEMA issued a preliminary report saying that New York failed to provide it with critical information it needs to conduct a full assessment of the emergency plan. FEMA requested the information by May 2, before it sends a final report to the NRC.
At the hearing, Rep. Sue Kelly, R-N.Y., gave acting-FEMA regional director Joe Picciano, who attended the hearing, 30 days to submit a report addressing three areas: local officials’ concerns about the Witt report, the issue of terrorism and its impact on the emergency plan, and the special requirements of high-population areas.
“If there has ever been a time for the federal agency in charge of managing emergencies to step forward and exert common-sense leadership in the name of public safety, it is now,” Kelly said. “But instead, FEMA sits on its hands, with its head in the sand, dismissing the major conclusions of an independent report calling the current evacuation plan inadequate.”
Other lawmakers testifying before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management questioned the feasibility of evacuating the 20 million people who live within a 50-mile radius of the plant, where people would suffer most from radiation releases. Norwalk lies within a 30-mile radius of the plant.
A poll conducted by Marist College found that 60 percent of residents living within a 10-50 mile radius of Indian Point would attempt to evacuate.
An NRC-commissioned study found that a successful terrorist attack on the plant could do over $500 billion in damage and result in over a quarter-million cancer-related fatalities, according to testimony.
The House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, which Shays chairs, announced last week it would hold a hearing March 10 on FEMA’s role in evacuation plans at nuclear facilities, including Indian Point and Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Conn.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
