We are, and we have been.
Mike Kaplowitz, who heads the Environment & Energy committee for the county’s Board of Legislators, has told a lot of people, including this Inside Chappaqua interview, that the evacuation plan has to be expanded from 10 miles to 50.
In fact, even the current plan is probably not going to work:
County Exec Rob Astorino agrees with that. According to LoHud.com, expanding the plan at this time would in fact be "premature." One of his spokespeople said that now's the time "to gather information, so that any decisions made are based on the best facts available and not emotion.”
It's clear that Entergy has little interest in any plan at all. Check out the one described on its own website and you'll find it's years out of date [NB: it was corrected in late May or early June]. They've been told so by a tech person, and it's still not fixed. So much for not having "enough information," and so much for getting the "facts."
One also has to wonder about the role Westchester County has been playing in this fiasco. It's one thing for legislators to demand that the evacuation zone be expanded. It's a whole other thing for them to have authorized this evacuaton plan, or indeed any other one, because no plan could safeguard residents or their property in the event of major catastrophe.
In fact, we should have expected less complacency and more intervention from local legislators for accidents of lesser magnitude. Radioactive water had been leaking at the site for four years when it was discovered in May 1994. A pipe broke a month later and toxic water went into the Hudson. Contaminated steam and radioactive water were released in 2000. Radioactive leaks in 2006. Tritium was leaking for two years before being discovered in 2007. A pipe leaked radioactive water in 2009.
Ending the deception that this plant is anywhere near "safe" is long overdue.
Mike Kaplowitz, who heads the Environment & Energy committee for the county’s Board of Legislators, has told a lot of people, including this Inside Chappaqua interview, that the evacuation plan has to be expanded from 10 miles to 50.
In fact, even the current plan is probably not going to work:
Entergy's director of emergency planning Michael Slobodien told the NY Times back in March 2003 that "it would be 'extremely unlikely' that a dangerous level of radiation would reach the city before breaking up." Eight years later and still on the job, the Times reports him to have said that no one knows if a plan could be drawn up to cover a 50-mile radius. There's not enough information, he says.
"I can sit here and tell you and your readers and viewers that unfortunately, if something happens tomorrow out at Indian Point, that the existing 10-mile evacuation plan is not good enough and in fact might not help the 480,000 people that live within the 10 miles."
County Exec Rob Astorino agrees with that. According to LoHud.com, expanding the plan at this time would in fact be "premature." One of his spokespeople said that now's the time "to gather information, so that any decisions made are based on the best facts available and not emotion.”It's clear that Entergy has little interest in any plan at all. Check out the one described on its own website and you'll find it's years out of date [NB: it was corrected in late May or early June]. They've been told so by a tech person, and it's still not fixed. So much for not having "enough information," and so much for getting the "facts."
One also has to wonder about the role Westchester County has been playing in this fiasco. It's one thing for legislators to demand that the evacuation zone be expanded. It's a whole other thing for them to have authorized this evacuaton plan, or indeed any other one, because no plan could safeguard residents or their property in the event of major catastrophe.
In fact, we should have expected less complacency and more intervention from local legislators for accidents of lesser magnitude. Radioactive water had been leaking at the site for four years when it was discovered in May 1994. A pipe broke a month later and toxic water went into the Hudson. Contaminated steam and radioactive water were released in 2000. Radioactive leaks in 2006. Tritium was leaking for two years before being discovered in 2007. A pipe leaked radioactive water in 2009.
Ending the deception that this plant is anywhere near "safe" is long overdue.
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