nuclear-news

Water discharge permit may lead to closure of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant

Indian Point may close if Entergy loses water-use permit Company proposes new screen-filtering system, LOHUD.com Aug. 6, 2013 The future of the Indian Point nuclear power plant may rest on the bottom of the Hudson River. That is where plant owner Entergy Nuclear wants to install a new technology to filter the  water needed to cool the plant’s reactors. The technology is Entergy’s attempt to get a water-use permit from the state, without which it could no longer operate Indian Point.

 The environmental group Riverkeeper said Entergy isn’t likely to get the state permission it needs to build anything on the river bottom — an assessment with which the utility company disagrees……..The DEC in 2010 ruled the plant’s daily use of 2.5 billion gallons of river water harmed fish populations and the river’s ecosystem. It denied Entergy the water-use permits. Without them, Entergy can’t renew the plant’s licenses for another 20 years, said Neil Sheehan, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman. The licenses expire this year and in 2015.

 “A final decision by the NRC in favor of the (renewal) application is contingent upon, among other things, successful resolution of the water discharge permit issue at the state level,” Sheehan said.

Entergy has balked at building closed-cycle towers, contending they are too expensive and too massive. Entergy has estimated the towers would cost about $1 billion, approximately 10 times as much as the wire screen technology.  http://www.lohud.com/article/20130806/NEWS/308060066

August 9, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, water