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The Costs of Living in the Shadow of Indian Point
To The Editor,
Whenever I hear the sirens echoing from town, I think, “Should I be driving north or east?” I turn on my radio and wait for the news to tell me to evacuate. As the sirens get louder I think, “If this were a nuclear emergency, would I be safer at home or in the car stuck in traffic?” Neither place would be safe, for they are not airtight. In the car, I would be cooked by the gamma and beta rays. In the house, I might be spared the beta rays, but the gamma rays would get through; which means I would be dead then and there or I would die a slow vicious death from cancer.
I roll down my window to feel which way the wind is blowing. Would I choose route 9D or 301? They both get pretty congested even when there is not a nuclear emergency. I resign to the fact that I would probably go home and hide in my pantry and wait for someone in a moon suit to find me. Entergy’s claim that we would be safe during a nuclear emergency is completely false.
What would happen to my major financial investment, my home, in the event I did escape alive? I called my homeowner’s insurance company, to find out. “No Ma’am, your house would not be covered in the event of radioactive contamination, it is excluded.” Who would reimburse me for my home in the event it was contaminated due to nuclear fallout at Indian Point? You can bet it won’t be Entergy. The Price-Anderson Act, enacted in 1957 and renewed in 2005, limits the nuclear industry’s financial liability for accidents, either in a reactor or research facility, in storage, or in transit. Under Price-Anderson, utilities carry the maximum private insurance of $200 million per reactor.
What is the dollar value of the life of a Hudson Valley resident in Entergy’s eyes? $928.07. Lets do the math. A 1982 Congressional Report based on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences” (“CRAC-2”) model, estimated that a meltdown at the Indian Point Unit 2 reactor would cause “46,000 Peak Early Fatalities, 141,000 Peak Early Injuries, [and] 13,000 Peak Deaths from cancer.”
A meltdown of the Indian Point Unit 3 reactor would cause “50,000 Peak Early Fatalities, 167,000 Peak Early Injuries, [and] 14,000 Peak Deaths from cancer.” This data assumes a “successful” evacuation. By the CRAC-2 calculations 431,000 people would be directly affected in the event of a nuclear catastrophe that’s $928.07 per person. Entergy has this all figured out. It is their calculated risk. If Entergy were to be held fiscally responsible in the event of a nuclear meltdown there would be a For Sale sign outside Indian Point at this very moment.
If, in fact, Indian Point were safe, secure, and vital (as Entergy pays millions for us to believe) and Entergy had nothing to hide, then they would gladly open their doors for an Independent Safety Assessment that includes a feasible evacuation plan which considers the lives of the millions of people who live in the shadow of Indian Point. It is our responsibility to demand our elected officials to close Indian Point, and certainly not re-license the plant for an additional 20 years of operation.
Kate Hagerman
Putnam Valley
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