- WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal
officials signed off Friday on emergency plans for the area around the
Indian Point nuclear power station, effectively overriding opposition from
local officials who felt evacuation procedures wouldn't protect residents
from radiation in a terrorist attack.
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- The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent a letter
to Gov. George Pataki late Friday outlining their ''determination of reasonable
assurance'' that current evacuation plans are adequate -- and insisting
they will take further steps to make the site even safer.
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- ''Emergency planning for Indian Point is an ongoing,
cyclical process,'' FEMA preparedness Director David Paulison wrote in
the letter, adding the agency ''is prepared to make the region a model
of preparedness for the nation.''
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- The decision caps months of standoffs and negotiations
among local, state and federal authorities over terrorism concerns surrounding
the plant in Buchanan, Westchester County.
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- NRC satisfied
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- Soon after the letter was sent, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission released a statement agreeing the facility's emergency plan
is ''satisfactory.''
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- Since the attacks, dozens of municipalities and more
than 200 elected officials in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have
endorsed efforts to close Indian Point.
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- Speaking at an unrelated event in Peekskill Friday, Pataki
said that since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, federal officials ''have
to rethink everything they've been doing. That's one of the reasons I wouldn't
certify the evacuation plan.''
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- The four counties closest to Indian Point -- Westchester,
Rockland, Orange and Putnam -- have offered differing levels of cooperation
with the federal recertification process, and refused to provide formal
letters acknowledging their safety preparations. The state followed suit.
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- Westchester has gone further, refusing to provide detailed
emergency plan updates.
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- County Executive Andrew Spano said Friday the plan ''does
not work in any way, shape, or form in a fast-moving scenario.''
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- FEMA said in the letter that it can still provide reasonable
assurance without the paper
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- work because the counties have conducted thorough on-the-ground
preparation and drills, and because a 2002 emergency drill by FEMA was
successful, ''with no deficiencies in the offsite emergency protective
measures used.''
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- The agency will also conduct a drill in the middle of
next year to test an attack on the site with a weapon of mass destruction.
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- Local elected officials, already highly critical of FEMA's
work on Indian Point, quickly pounced on the agency's findings.
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- ''It is inconceivable how federal officials can sign
off on it,'' said Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah, whose district includes Indian
Point. ''I think they were determined to ram this through at any cost.''
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- 'Flawed process'
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- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lives in nearby Chappaqua,
said she was ''extremely disturbed'' by the news, and called the decision
process flawed.
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- Earlier this year, FEMA officials had warned that without
proper submissions from local authorities, they might have to notify the
NRC they could not give ''reasonable assurance'' existing emergency plans
adequately protect residents. That move could have led to the plant's closure.
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- The nuclear power plant has always faced some local opposition,
but the shutdown movement gained momentum after the attacks of Sept. 11,
2001. One of the jetliners hijacked by terrorists that day flew over Indian
Point on its way to the World Trade Center.
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- Since then, concerns have been raised about possible
terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities around the country, but no other
plant is next to such a large population center.
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- NRC officials have repeatedly insisted the design and
safety enhancements made since Sept. 11, 2001, are more than adequate to
deter or resist a terrorist attack, and have created a national program
of mock terrorist attack drills to test the upgrades.
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- Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, which operates Indian
Point called a decision to recertify ''a very positive development and
a credit to the emergency planners in the four counties and New York state
who have worked so hard.''
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- http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/saturday/frontpage/stories/fr072603s1.shtml
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