Governor Andrew Cuomo says that a recent inspection of the Indian Point Energy Center reaffirms his position that the plant should not be relicensed.
On Tuesday, Cuomo released a statement saying that faulty bolts were discovered within a reactor during the inspection in the Unit 2 Plant.
Cuomo said there is no immediate danger to the public, but "this troubling new further validates the State's ongoing investigation into the operations of the aging power plant and (the State's) position that it could not be relicensed."
Cuomo says the defects will be addressed immediately, and the state will continue to investigate the plant's safety.
The Indian Point Energy Center is composed of three different units that sit on the East bank of the Hudson River less than 60 miles away from New York City. Indian Point 1 went into operation in 1962 but was shut down eight years later because the reactor did not meet regulatory requirements. Units 2 and 3 went into operation in 1974 and 1976, and they were commissioned under 40 year licenses. Those licenses expired in 2013 and 2015 respectively, and the operator, Entergy has been trying to get them decertified for another 20 years.
Governor Cuomo does not support the recertification, but nuclear energy analysts have voiced concern about phasing out the power plant. They worry that New York's other power plants can be streamlined fast enough to meet the state's energy needs and avoid causing massive blackouts.
