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NRC Researching Nuke Plant Operation Beyond 60 Years

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. – As the nearly 40-year-old Indian Point Nuclear Power Plants apply for their first 20-year extensions, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is researching whether plants can be safely operated for more than 60 years, an NRC official says.

“The agency is currently looking at research that might be needed to determine whether there could be extension even beyond that [60 years],” William Dean, the NRC’s regional administrator, said at a press briefing Wednesday morning.

The NRC currently has no process for extending a license beyond 20 years. No nuclear power plant in the U.S. is 60-years-old. Most were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Indian Point Units 2 and 3, were built in 1973 and 1975 respectively.

Dean said, however, that the research is ongoing, and that "it will be several years before we come to a determination of whether licenses could be extended even beyond the current 20-year license renewal,” he said.

Dean also said that no nuclear power plant has ever been denied a license extension after going through the lengthy application process, although some plants have shut down without applying for extensions.  

Jerry Nappi, a spokesman for Indian Point, said owner-operator Entergy is confident the 20-year extension will be granted. License renewal proceedings for the plant began in about five years ago, and currently the plant is in court proceedings over contentions. The contentions have been brought by various parties and allege that Entergy has violated either regulatory or legal requirements. Hearings on the contentions are expected to begin around October, according to Neil Sheehan, spokesperson for the NRC.

Entergy is also in proceedings with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation over a water quality certificate, which is required to continue using 2.5 billion gallons of water a day from the Hudson River. The DEC says the company should put in a closed-cycle cooling system, not wedge-wire screens as the company has proposed.

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