Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has promised to make Indian Point its first and top priority in its review of seismic risks at 27 nuclear power plants throughout the country.

Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy and Director of State Operations, Howard Glaser met today at NRC headquarters in Maryland with top NRC officials on the issue of safety regarding the Buchanan nuclear power plants.

According to Cuomo, the NRC has agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding that will share federal data regarding seismic risk specific to Indian Point with technical experts in New York and include experts from New York State as part of the NRC on-site inspection team that will evaluate Indian Point's seismic risk.

In addition, NRC Chair Greg Jaczko agreed to conduct a personal site inspection of Indian Point with state officials.

Said Cuomo, "It is essential that the NRC move quickly to answer the significant and long-standing safety questions surrounding Indian Point. We appreciate the NRC agreeing to move swiftly and look forward to working closely with them on this issue to protect the health and safety of New Yorkers."

Cuomo has long been an opponent of Indian Point and has worked to prevent the federal re-licensing of the facility.  Yesterday, Entergy officials met before an energy subcommittee of the Westchester County Board of Legislators and maintained that Indian Point is safe and, unlike Japan, would be highly unlikely to sustain a large earthquake of a 9.0 magnitude. 

The company says Indian Point has been designed to sustain a 6.0 magnitude earthquake and says power redundancies built in to the system make it unlikely it would be susceptible to a meltdown as evidenced  in Japan's recent nuclear crisis.