NEW YORK – Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced on Monday that he has taken action he says would ensure the dangers and consequences of long-term on-site storage of nuclear waste at Indian Point are fully examined in the ongoing relicensing review process.  Specifically, Schneiderman has filed a contention in the review process arguing that -- in light of his recent U.S. Appeals Court victory -- the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must now review the risks posed by nuclear waste storage at Indian Point before any decisions are made about extending its operating license for another 20 years.     

“There is no question that on-site storage of nuclear waste could pose long-term health and environmental risks,” said Schneiderman. “Despite this, the NRC has refused my repeated requests to address the impacts of spent fuel leaks and fires in Indian Point's relicensing proceeding on the environment and public health.  But now that a federal Appeals Court has sided with my office -- and agreed that the NRC must examine the risks of long-term, on-site nuclear waste storage -- the Commission can not dismiss these impacts at Indian Point.  New Yorkers deserve nothing less than a full, fair and open examination of the dangers posed by long-term nuclear waste storage at Indian Point -- and the alternatives to mitigate those risks -- before any decisions are made about its relicensing.”

The NRC is currently considering an application by Indian Point's owner for permission to operate the facility’s two reactors, which were originally licensed almost 40 years ago, for an additional 20 years.  The Attorney General’s office has raised a number of serious safety and environmental concerns related to the relicensing of Indian Point that the NRC has accepted for consideration as a part of the relicensing proceeding.  However, heretofore, the NRC has repeatedly refused the Attorney General's requests to have the dangers and consequences of long-term storage of nuclear waste at Indian Point be considered in the proceeding. 

But, on June 8th, Schneiderman won a victory in a lawsuit against the NRC challenging a Commission finding that the long-term storage of radioactive waste at the nation’s nuclear power plants is safe and has no significant environmental impacts.  This decision means that the NRC cannot license or relicense any nuclear power plant -- including the Indian Point facilities in Westchester County -- until it examines the  consequences of long-term on-site storage of nuclear waste.   

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with Schneiderman that federal law requires the NRC to complete review of the public health, safety and environmental hazards such storage would pose before allowing the long-term storage of nuclear waste in communities. The appeals court found that the spent nuclear fuel stored on-site “poses a dangerous, long-term health and environmental risk.”  The Court invalidated the regulation and remanded the matter back to NRC with a directive that the Commission fully comply with federal law.