News
Journal News: Indian Point
Poll: 53% say keep Indian Pt. running
But evacuation plan, terrorism, accidents are major concerns
01.24.2008
By Greg Clary
PURCHASE - A new survey shows that 53 percent of residents polled in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties support keeping the Indian Point nuclear plant open, while 45 percent want to see the site produce electricity through 2035, Manhattanville College pollsters say.
About three in 10 people polled want the plant shut down now, while about one in three opposes extending its operating license 20 years.
"As the owners of Indian Point press to renew their license, this issue will continue to roil the region," said Manhattanville College President Richard Berman. "The debate about Indian Point is well beyond a discussion of nuclear power."
By an overwhelming margin, residents are still concerned about evacuation plans, terrorist attacks and an accidental release of radiation, the results showed.
Berman said the debate pits the concerns about the regional economic impacts of the plant going offline against the concerns about a plant with a history of operational issues situated in a densely populated region.
"If this were a political candidate, I would say he has some strong positives, but some very hard negatives as well," Berman said. "I would have expected there would be more 'undecideds.' "
Manhattanville's poll was conducted by telephone interview with 502 residents, 492 of which are registered voters in Westchester, Rockland or Putnam. The respondents were selected randomly using a dialing program designed to give equal probability of being selected to anyone with a telephone.
College officials said the interviews included were a representative sample of the three-county area, based on U.S. census and ZIP code data.
The margin of error for the entire poll, conducted Jan. 2-5 on a host of issues, was less than 5 percentage points.
Entergy Nuclear, the owner and operator of Indian Point, has applied for a license renewal that would allow the site to remain in operation through 2035.
Federal regulators do not expect to rule on that until late 2009.
Manhattanville College did a similar survey in April that showed that 47 percent of residents polled wanted the plants to keep operating, while 33 percent said they wanted the reactors shut down.
Poll results released yesterday show:
- Nearly three out of four people are somewhat or very concerned about a terrorist attack at the plant.
- Nearly four out of five people are somewhat or very concerned about an accident that releases nuclear radiation into the environment.
- Four out of five respondents are somewhat or very concerned about the feasibility of the emergency evacuation plan for residents living within 10 miles of the plant.
- Women are more worried about the safety and operation of the plant than men - 35 percent of women want the plant closed; 24 percent of men do. The disparity is even greater on extending Indian Point's license - 56 percent of men want the plant to continue until 2035 compared with 35 percent of women.
- More than 20 percent of people are on the fence on the question of extending the operator licenses of Indian Point's two nuclear reactors.
Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said the poll trends in favor of keeping plant open match what the company has found in its polling.
"It's encouraging that there is this support for Indian Point," Steets said. "We're not surprised by it, but it's encouraging that it shows there is more support for keeping the plants operating than for shutting them down."
Steets said the economic value and global warming value of the plants are beginning to show through to residents.
"I think that people also realize that people think we're doing what we need to do to protect the plants," Steets said.
Riverkeeper, which has been one of the most active organizations pushing for the Indian Point to be closed, saw the poll results differently.
"The results of this poll should be a wake-up call to the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) that Indian Point must not be relicensed," said Phillip Musegaas, a policy analyst for the environmental group. "The poll shows that a large majority of local residents have no confidence in the fatally flawed evacuation plans, and are gravely concerned about an accidental release of radiation from the plant."
Musegaas said about two-thirds of people polled had concerns about exposure to radiation from the normal operation of the plant.
"These results also demonstrate that the Hudson Valley congressional delegation's efforts to increase scrutiny of Indian Point are not 'political theater' as Entergy claims," Musegaas said, "but are in fact actions supported by their constituencies."
A spokesman for an industry organization that supports Indian Point's relicensing application said the poll shows overall support for the nuclear plant.
"The poll results are not surprising to New York AREA, whose more than 125 members - business organizations, labor unions and others - explicitly and strongly support Indian Point's license renewal," said Paul Steidler of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance. "So long as the discussion about Indian Point is kept fact-based and civil, we expect there will be even stronger support for license renewal as this process moves forward.
"It is also quite encouraging that most Westchester residents, as we expected, have had the good sense to see beyond years and years of perennial anti-nuclear fear-mongering," Steidler said.