Indian Point

Are nuclear power plants and especially those within the Episcopal Diocese of New York safe, safe for the environment, relatively safe from potential industrial accidents and safe from terrorism attack?

In last year’s State of the Union address, President George Bush said “diagrams of American nuclear power plants” were found in al Qaeda camps.

The Advisory Council of Region II of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, chaired by Jeanette Matthews, decided that the church should offer a “Safe Space” forum at which all viewpoints could be presented. The first two of the three forums, “Safe Space: A Conversation About Indian Point,” were conducted at Grace Church, Nyack, and St. Thomas, Mamaroneck.

Playing on the “Safe Space” phrase, the planners, according to Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam wanted to generate a discussion about nuclear safety that was different from other forums, which were either politically based or were debates. These forums could also pose questions about the moral dimensions of the issues and in a setting that would be moderated so that the tone might be civil and attendees could “listen and learn from each other,” Roskam explained.

The moderator, the Rev. Jeff Golliher, PhD, canon for the environment at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, did succeed in keeping the tone cordial, but that didn’t keep the presenters and the audiences at the two forums from forcefully speaking their minds.

Forum participants discussed or questioned the effectiveness of evacuation plans in the event of an accident or attack, the safety of daily plant operations, security against attack of any kind and the health and environmental safety of nuclear power as a means of power generation. Another issue raised was how to communicate these issues to the non-English speaking people in communities served by the power plants.

Yes, nuclear plants are safe, according to James Steets, spokesperson for Entergy Nuclear, the company that owns and operates two power plants in Westchester, which supply electrical power to 2 million residential and commercial customers.

Speaking to the Grace Church audience, Steets said that Entergy’s bid to purchase the plants two years ago was accepted because of its good operational track record at other nuclear power facilities. And, he added, they have spent millions of dollars in increased security measures since 9/11.

But, over many years, long before Entergy was in the picture, concerned citizens and community groups have looked for facts and information to assure them of the safety of a nuclear facility in their backyards. Archdeacon Michael Kendall of the Diocese attended the St. Thomas forum and said, he wanted to hear, as someone who lives near the power plants, how Entergy, “the new kid on the block” was going to deal with the issues.

At Grace Church, Chris Jensen, representing Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, read from a letter sent by the executive to Governor George Pataki, saying he would not submit the “checklist” about safety issues that was to be part of the process for certifying the plants.

At St. Thomas, Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano said, he would also not be submitting his “checklist” and went further by saying that Westchester never wanted the plant there in the first place. He allowed that Entergy is operating the plant more successfully than its previous owners, but the possibility of a nuclear disaster from an accident or terrorism is a risk not worth taking. In his words, “Better safe than sorry.”

However, Grace Church member Paul N. Goodwin, PhD told the forum that from his long years as a certified radiological physicist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he feels that nuclear power is safe.

References to the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant, in the former Soviet Union, which affected, according to Ukrainian officials, the health of millions of people, were countered by representatives from Entergy, who said that nuclear plants in the United States are designed differently so they can contain or limit radioactive fallout.

Foster Zeh, a security trainer at Indian Point, now on administrative leave from the company, because he was, as he said, a “whistle blower” at the plant, told the group that the security staff is not given adequate training or equipment, such as weapons, to fend off incursions, should they happen.
Norris McDonald, president of the African-American Environmentalist Association, said in a formal statement, “I am appearing before you to speak in favor of Indian Point. We should not allow the threat of terrorism to close” the plants. But in another part of his statement, he said, “No American target, including the White House, is impenetrable.”

Before the forums, The Journal News reported, the “diocese does not plan to take a position at this time on Indian Point’s future.” When asked about this, Golliher said that the Diocese wants first to give church members and the community an open opportunity to discern for themselves what the facts are. And, he said, just as they will be listening, we will be listening to them. It is “part of a larger process that helps people find the truth in the midst of all the talk” before they or we act, he explained.

Kyle Rabin, Policy Analyst for Riverkeeper, an independent member-supported group, “whose mission is to track down and stop polluters…who threaten the Hudson River,” quoted from a section of the James Lee Witt Report commissioned by Gov. Pataki about plant safety and security that seemed to indicate that Entergy has not fully satisfied operational requirements. Steets, of Entergy, said the company had complied but that the people from the Witt report had not asked for the documentation that would have given them the information.

Marc Jacobs, a co-founder of Westchester Citizens Awareness Network and co-director of the Longview School, said his concern was as a local resident who felt the use and long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel rods, used to generate power, posed great potential danger because, in his view, one can’t guarantee the near or extended term containment of radioactive material that in some cases would remain active for 240 million years, by one estimate.

On a more specifically moral concern, Marilyn Elie of the Westchester County Citizens Awareness Network said Native Americans are employed to mine and prepare the radioactive substances in Utah and that nuclear wastes were to be transported back to those territories for centuries of storage. “The question of passing this legacy to our children is a moral one,” she said.
Bishop Roskam said in an interview at Grace Church that she was concerned about all the issues presented and had one question of her own to raise. “What about the tension that companies like nuclear power plant owners have between serving the best interests of their communities and their seeming preference or need to generate short-term profits, even if that means at the known expense of their customers?”

Other forum presenters included Maureen Ritter of the Rockland Coalition to Close Indian Point and Howard Shaffer, Scientific Consultant on the Morality of Nuclear Energy.

Sheldon Evans, a member of St. Thomas, asked rhetorically, “Since we’ve known about these issues from the beginning, how did we get to” having these huge nuclear operations here? He might also have added, and what do we do now?

The third Safe Space forum is scheduled for St. Paul’s On-the-Hill, Ossining. In a comment to the media, the Rev. Stephen Holton, rector of St. Paul’s, said, “This is a frightening subject and a divisive subject, and the church belongs where people are frightened and where people are divided.”