NATIONAL WATCHDOG GROUP TELLS GOVERNOR CUOMO NEW YORK STATE CAN AND SHOULD REJECT SALE OF INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR PLANT TO HOLTEC

With the Biden administration poised to appoint new leadership of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a national nuclear watchdog group Beyond Nuclear is calling for the ongoing process of formalizing the sale of the soon-to-be-closed Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan, New York to a subsidiary of Holtec International to be revisited, and for New York State to exercise its authority over it.

In a letter with supporting documents to Governor Cuomo, shared with other top State officials, Beyond Nuclear urged New York State to assert jurisdiction over the license transfer of Indian Point to Holtec, and to reject Holtec as Indian Point’s licensee.

The plant’s current owner Entergy obtained NRC approval for transferring the licenses of Indian Point, which shuts down permanently in April 2021, to Holtec for the purpose of decommissioning it.  But the NRC granted that approval over New York's objections, without addressing concerns about Holtec that the State and citizens’ groups raised, and without holding hearings on the matter that State officials and the New York U.S. congressional delegation requested.

(Holtec's next announced takeover after Indian Point is at the Palisades and Big Rock Point nuclear power plant sites on the Lake Michigan shoreline in west Michigan.)

“Transferring Indian Point's licenses to Holtec poses significant risks to New York, including threats to public health and safety, environmental impacts on the surrounding area and the Hudson, and negative impacts on the state's economy and fiscal health,” the Beyond Nuclear letter states.  “Holtec and its partner company, SNC-Lavalin of Montreal, Quebec, have been caught multiple times in bribery, fraud, and malfeasance, and Holtec is currently under criminal investigation in New Jersey.  Holtec lacks the necessary qualifications to hold Indian Point's licenses in terms of financial assurance, technical expertise, and decommissioning experience.”

The letter summarizes Holtec’s positioning and record, which includes leveraging public monies for its own profit without bringing any of its own funds to decommissioning work; using a subsidiary structure which would enable it to leave decommissioning work at Indian Point half done and walk away without liability, leaving New York State and municipalities to bear the costs and risks; using flawed casks for dry storage of highly radioactive “spent” nuclear fuel (SNF) and nearly dropping SNF when transferring it to dry casks, which could have resulted in a severe radiological release; cutting costs and corners, for example by seeking exemptions from a raft of safety regulations and hiring low-wage, unskilled workers for safety-critical tasks; suing reactor communities to evade accountability to them; and ignoring and denigrating the input and concerns of advisory bodies and the public. 

Beyond Nuclear also faults Holtec for “conflicts of interest and a high potential for self-dealing regarding its side businesses heighten[ing] the risk that Holtec will make decisions prioritizing its profits over public health and safety.”  These include Holtec’s “consolidated interim storage facility" for irradiated nuclear fuel it is trying to license in New Mexico, which would entail shipping intensely radioactive "spent" fuel across the country, and building small modular reactors (SMRs), which could be fueled with fissile materials from reprocessed spent fuel. 

Holtec has proposed installing SMRs at New Jersey’s shuttered Oyster Creek nuclear plant, which it is in the process of decommissioning. Beyond Nuclear says that raises concerns that Holtec may have the same agenda at Indian Point, “threaten[ing] to re-nuclearize Indian Point after the State rightly decided to close and decommission the plant.” 

“New York needs a competent, trustworthy Indian Point licensee which is qualified to conduct safe decommissioning,” the letter states. “Holtec clearly is not that licensee.  The risks it would pose to New York, if it takes over Indian Point, are unacceptable.  They're also preventable.”  

In the letter Beyond Nuclear joins the call for Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearings on Indian Point sale and license transfer to Holtec, and points out additional options the State has for exerting authority over license transfer and decommissioning decisions regarding Indian Point.  These include demanding license transfer be held in abeyance until the Biden administration appoints new NRC leadership, demanding a hearing before the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), challenging license transfer to Holtec in federal court, and exerting NYS Public Service Commission (PSC) authority over the license transfer. “Given Holtec's egregious record, it is not only possible, but necessary, for the PSC to assert its jurisdiction over license transfer approval,” the letter argues. “It should refuse to approve Holtec as the licensee.”

NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS:  The Beyond Nuclear letter to Governor Cuomo and NYS officials is posted here.  The attachments include a short fact sheet on nuclear plant decommissioning, a backgrounder on use and abuse of decommissioning trust funds, and comments filed with the NRC documenting the track record of Holtec and its partner company SNC-Lavalin.  For a copy of the full package, and/or to arrange an interview with Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Specialist who wrote the letter, please contact Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988.