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Video Interviews featuring Nuclear New York

Radio/Podcast Interviews featuring Nuclear New York

Articles featuring Nuclear New York

  • Nuclear Power May Be Making Comeback in NY. Could it Help State Cut Fossil Fuel Use? (Thomas C. Zambito – Lohud – Aug 2024)
    • “‘I think New York State has learned a lesson from letting a nuclear plant shut down,’ said Isuru Seneviratne of Nuclear New York, a group of pro-nuclear climate scientists, environmentalists and labor leaders. ‘I think the U.S. in general has learned the lesson. We are bringing Palisades back in Michigan and I think it behooves us to figure out how to bring Indian Point back.'”
  • A Comeback for Nuclear Power (The Week Staff – The Week – Sep 2022)
    • “It’s complicated. Nuclear reactors produce no direct carbon dioxide emissions, making them appealing as a potential bridge between fossil fuels and renewable energy…’Any energy policy has pros and cons,’ said Eric Dawson, a grassroots campaigner at Nuclear New York. ‘The pros outweigh the cons on nuclear energy.'”
  • The Radical Left’s Anti-Nuclear Agenda Is Still Foolish (Eric Scott Dawson – National Review – May 2022)
    • “Nuclear New York, a grassroots pro-nuclear energy organization, created this open-air art installation to depict the loss of a thousand jobs. These were well-paying jobs for a small town in an energy industry that emits no greenhouse gases from its activity, all attributes supposedly valued by the party in power in the Empire State.”
    • “The argument is simple: We can decarbonize our electric grids without lowering quality of life for average people whatsoever…”
  • Climate Scientist to State: Where’s the Nuclear Power? (Cayte Bosler – Adirondack Explorer – May 2022)
    • “‘I am shocked by this document,’ James Hansen said this month at an Albany press conference. ‘It looks like it’s a prescription for making New York the Germany of the U.S. It’s almost a carbon copy of the disastrous German energy plan.'”
    • “Analysis by Nuclear New York (which lobbied to keep Indian Point open) shows that Indian Point’s carbon-free output was ‘replaced primarily by methane gas-fired generation at Cricket Valley (online from March 2020) and CPV, the largest and 3rd largest fossil plants in New York State, respectively.'”
  • Nuclear Power Advocates Challenge State Climate Action Council Plan (Shayla Colon – Times Union – Apr 2022)
    • “Climate scientist and former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute James Hansen commended the legislation but critiqued the state’s initial scoping plan this week, arguing that it gives “short shrift to our most reliable, proven means of decarbonization – nuclear power.”
    • “During an informational presentation at the Empire State Plaza Thursday by Nuclear New York, industry leaders touted nuclear as a boon that doesn’t take as much time or large-scale resources to construct while providing environmental, economic and health benefits.”
    • “Herschel Specter, an engineer and president of Micro-Utilities, said concerns over nuclear waste are absurd. He noted such waste has sat in pools around the country for decades and he has yet to hear of anyone harmed by it, adding that new disposal methods bury the waste hundreds of feet underground, where he anticipates the public wouldn’t be exposed to radiation from it.”
  • Saving Billions & Protecting N.Y.’s Environment: Nuclear Energy is the Key (Len Rodberg – New York Daily News – Apr 2022)
    • “Elsewhere, independent studies conducted for New England, California and the Pacific Northwest have shown that an energy source that does not depend on the weather and is always available — often referred to as a “firm” source of power — is necessary to have a reliable, affordable energy system, particularly when the weather gets especially hot or cold.”
    • “Nuclear power can be readily scaled up over the coming decades. New types of small, safe, factory-built reactors are being developed with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.”
    • “The all-renewable path envisioned in the state’s plan is costly and will struggle to satisfy the state’s energy needs. Nuclear, supplemented by renewables, can supply what’s needed rapidly and cost-effectively. The state has to redo its analysis, incorporating nuclear power from the beginning.”
  • Geothermal Heat Pumps are Among the Most Earth-Friendly Home Energy Sources, Experts Say (Brenda Richardson – Washington Post – Mar 2022)
    • “For Keith Schue of Cherry Valley, N.Y., the trade-off between a geothermal heat pump and a furnace was a no-brainer. Schue’s environmental advocacy work inspired him to install a geothermal heat pump at his 1880-era Victorian-style house 2½ years ago. ‘My whole deal is that if we are going to actually deal with climate change and get off of fossil fuels, we need to be doing things like this, whether it’s a ground-source heat pump or air-source heat pump,’ he said. ‘Of course, we also need to make more carbon-free electricity to run them. Both renewables and nuclear power are important for that.‘”
    • “Dennis Higgins of Otego, N.Y., has a horizontal geothermal heat pump system that was installed in October 2019…But Higgins and his wife, Katie, are avid environmentalists and over the years have made a big effort to decarbonize their household energy…In Upstate New York, electricity is mostly carbon free, being supplied by the huge Robert Moses Niagara Hydroelectric Power Station and nuclear plants on Lake Ontario. Downstate New York is less fortunate. Ninety percent of its electricity is generated by big gas- and oil-burning power plants. ‘There is less environmental benefit if you heat your home with an air-source or ground-source heat pump which requires electricity from a fossil-fuel power plant,’ Higgins said. ‘We need to make sure all our energy is carbon free.‘”
  • Is Nuclear Power the Missing Piece of our Climate Change Puzzle? (Daniel Van Boom – CNET – Jul 2021)
    • “A thought experiment, proposed with a grin by Dietmar Detering, a German entrepreneur living in New York: ‘What would the climate debate look like if all we had were fossil fuels and renewables, and suddenly someone said, ‘I invented something, it’s called nuclear energy.” ‘I’m sure we’d develop the hell out of it,’ he said, before sighing. ‘We’re looking at a different world right now.” Detering thinks nuclear energy could be the key to solving the climate crisis. A former member of Germany’s Green Party, Detering now spends his spare time as co-chair of the Nuclear New York advocacy group. He’s part of a wave of environmentalists campaigning for more nuclear energy. Though the word evokes images of landscapes pulverized by atomic calamity — Hiroshima, Chernobyl, Fukushima — proponents like Detering and his colleague Eric Dawson point out that nuclear power produces huge amounts of electricity while emitting next to no carbon.”
    • “‘Any energy policy has pros and cons, and we feel, after putting a lot of scrutiny on it, that the pros outweigh the cons of nuclear energy,’ said Dawson, a grassroots campaigner at Nuclear New York.”
    • “‘Norway, Iceland, New Zealand, countries like these all have a naturally high supply for hydroelectricity, so I’m not promoting nuclear there,’ says Dawson, the campaigner from Nuclear New York. ‘If [renewables] work, and they provide first-world quality of life, great! But most countries are not able to do that.'”
    • “Nuclear critics argue that this rise is temporary, and that expanding wind power will eventually replace Indian Point’s output. Nuclear New York’s Detering rejects this logic. ‘People say, ‘Well, we’re replacing nuclear with wind and solar,’ said Detering. ‘But I think that is looking at this backwards. We want to displace fossil fuels.'”
    • “For them it’s not a matter of looking for the perfect energy source, but of comparing alternatives. ‘Nuclear energy is not fairydust,’ says Detering. ‘There’s waste and there’s a risk of something going wrong. Comparing it to something that’s real, these are small issues.’ For his part, Dawson says he won’t advocate for nuclear power if a better alternative emerges. ‘But today, I think this is the most reliable, efficient, scalable, carbon-free technology we have,’ he said. ‘So let’s do something that works today.'”
  • New York Indian Point Nuclear Plant Shuts Down, Ending an Era. (Edward Helmore – Mother Jones – May 2021)
    • “According to Nuclear New York, a group opposing closure, Indian Point produced 81 percent of downstate clean energy, with solar and hydro making up 2 percent and 4 percent. Fossil fuels accounted for 67 percent of all state production.”
  • So Long, Indian Point Nuclear Plant. Hello, More Fossil Fuels. (Sydney Pereira – Gothamist – Apr 2021)
    • “Nuclear New York, an advocacy group that fought to keep the plant from closing, estimates fossil fuel-backed plants in the metro area would need to increase electricity generation by one-third to meet demand.”
    • “‘Pretending as if that’s sufficient to make up for lost electricity from Indian Point is disingenuous,’ Nuclear New York member Isuru Seneviratne said.”
  • Indian Point Shuts Down, But the Nuclear Power Debate Continues. (Susan Arbetter – NY State of Politics – Apr 2021)
    • “Nuclear engineer and member of the group Nuclear New York, Herschel Specter, was a federal regulator in the 1970s with the Atomic Energy Commission. He disagrees that Indian Point should be taken off line, saying it could probably continue providing greater New York with carbon-free nuclear power for another 20 years.”
    • “‘“They didn’t shut down Indian Point right away when they signed the closure agreement,’ Specter said. ‘They waited a number of years, and that gave them time to build two huge gas plants. The CPV Plant and the Cricket Valley Plant, these are gas plants replacing carbon free nuclear,’ Specter said. ‘It’s absolutely ridiculous.'”
  • Indian Point is Shutting Down. That Means More Fossil Fuel. (Patrick McGeehan – New York Times – Apr 2021)
    • “‘It’s topsy-turvy,’ said Isuru Seneviratne, a clean-energy investor who is a member of the steering committee of Nuclear New York, which has lobbied to keep Indian Point running. The pronuclear group calculated that each of Indian Point’s reactors had been producing more power than all of the wind turbines and solar panels in the state combined.”
    • “Mr. Seneviratne said it was inevitable that New York City would draw even more power this year from gas-fired generators after Indian Point closes. On the hottest summer days, when millions of air-conditioners are turned on, gas-burning plants would need to increase their output by as much as one-third, spewing tons of additional carbon dioxide into the air, Nuclear New York had concluded.”

Articles

Reports on Indian Point

  • Setting the Record Straight on Indian Point (February 2021) Losing New York’s largest source of carbon-free energy, Indian Point, hurts climate and community protection. A brief posted by Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers has led many to believe that renewables and energy efficiency are rapidly replacing nuclear. Co-authored by Dr James Hansen and Meredith Angwin, Setting the Record Straight critiques this misconception, discusses errors and oversights of the brief, and details the challenges associated with designing systems capable of meeting energy needs in the real world.
  • Letter to NYS Climate Action Council Regarding the Importance of Nuclear Power to CLCPA Goals, (June 2020)
  • A Critique of the PSE Brief on Indian Point This is a critical moment for the environmental movement in New York. Replacing IP with gas would greatly diminish or even destroy any hope of obtaining a low carbon future in New York. Regardless of one’s position on Indian Point, the key issue is whether or not Indian Point will be replaced by gas. This critique should serve as an invitation to PSE and others to address the issue of “How do we get New York to start to phase out gas?” (Herschel Specter – May 2020)
  • EE plus RE Cannot Replace Indian Point Every nuclear plant in the United States that has recently closed has been replaced by fossil fuels; none by energy efficiency and none by renewable energy. Indian Point 2 (IP2) is scheduled to close on April 30, 2020 and Indian Point 3 (IP3) a year later. They will be replaced by gas, unless NY State reverses its policies. (Herschel Specter – April 2020)
  • A Reliability Analysis For Riverkeeper The two nuclear units at Indian Point are scheduled to permanently close in April 30, 2020 and exactly one year later. In 2018 this facility produced 16.3 TWh of electricity, equal to 25% of NYC and Westchester demand. Where will the electricity to replace these highly productive, greenhouse gas free, power plants come from? (Herschel Specter – Jun 2019)
  • Environmental Justice Issues After Indian Point Closes Closing Indian Point may force NY State/Con-Ed to increase the use of existing “peaker” plants and other fossil fueled power plants, located in Environmental Justice Areas in New York City. There plants would significantly increase the release of greenhouse gases, add to the city’s air pollution, and may cause serious health effects. (Herschel Specter – Sep 2019)
  • Replacing Indian Point (Herschel Specter – Jul 2019) To truly replace Indian Point, any replacement scheme must also be (1) carbon-free, (2) highly reliable, and (3) productive enough to match its output. As New Yorkers demand action on the existential threat of climate change, while keeping them economically vital, this report calls for a rethinking of how to proceed.
  • The Best Emergency Plan for Indian Point, Rev. 2 (Herschel Specter – Nov 2019)
  • A recent comprehensive report from the Citizens Budget Commission, an influential think tank, found that the projected expansion of solar and wind was “likely infeasible” Getting Greener: Cost-Effective Options for Achieving New York State’s Greenhouse Gas Goals. Citizens’ Budget Commission. (December 2019)
  • Charles River Associates was retained by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to analyze the economic, reliability, and environmental effects of the proposed retirement of the Indian Point Energy Center, a nuclear power plant in Westchester County, New York. This analysis helped the City of New York and other key energy stakeholders understand the implications of IPEC’s potential retirement. (August 2011)
  • NYS Department of Environmental Conservation finds “no reasonable basis to perform a [State Environmental Quality Review Act] analysis comparing the impacts of Indian Point operating past the early retirement dates.” (2017)
  • Gov Cuomo promised “Replacement Power Will Be In Place That Adds No New Carbon Emissions” (January 2017)
  • The Indian Point Closure Agreement in its entirety (January 2017)
  • Balancing the Facts on Tritium Levels at Indian Point (Ethan Bodnaruk – 2016)

Government Reports

Videos

Petitions