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Letter To The Editor: Indian Point Should Close

CORTLANDT, N.Y. -- Cortlandt Daily Voice accepts signed letters to the editor. Send signed letters to Cortlandt@dailyvoice.com.

Indian Point.

Indian Point.

Photo Credit: contributed

To the editor:

In a previous life, I was an energy analyst for Sustainable Energy Alliance. We were an environmental group dedicated to saving the environment while "keeping the lights on" in Long Island. I co-authored the chapter on solar energy in our "Draft Proposal to LIPA." It was our plan to convert Long Island to clean energy after the closing of the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant.

I am hopeful that the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant will be closed - the sooner, the better - and I am concerned with the economic issues raised that we all must consider.

Here are my questions:

1) Who would pay for decommissioning Indian Point? It has more than 230 acres of riverfront land. The radio-active fuel rods and other waste would need to be removed and any contamination would need to be cleaned up if we were to replace the land's use with safe, productive projects.

2) How much would it cost to clean up Entergy's mess?

3) Would Entergy be financially capable of paying for a disaster similar to those at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima?

4) Is it true that Indian Point is not insured for this type of disaster?

Regarding reliable, clean energy to replace the 25 percent that ConEd draws from Indian Point for our region, there has been talk that nuclear energy is inexpensive and that our energy bills will go up.

5) Where is the evidence that nuclear energy is inexpensive? I recently left Long Island, where a large portion of our energy bill was still paying for a nuclear power plant in Shoreham. It was built in the 1970s and abandoned in the 1980s. It never delivered a single watt. Even with all the creative financing and restructuring of that debt, which rose to more than $6 billion, electric power on Long Island costs about 10 percent less than it does from ConEd in Westchester. This includes all the surcharges, delivery charges, taxes, etc.

6) Compared to where is our energy inexpensive? We would have to cross an ocean to find more expensive energy. Nuclear is expensive and too dangerous to insure.

Steve Sloane

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