NEW YORK - New York could replace the electricity generated at the Indian Point nuclear power plant without building another nuclear unit, but political, regulatory, and financial hurdles would make it hard to do, according to a report from the National Research Council.
"There are no insurmountable technical barriers to replacing the energy lost by shutting down Indian Point," said Lawrence Papay, head of the committee that wrote the report.
"But we are less confident that government and financial mechanisms are in place to facilitate the timely implementation of alternatives," said Papay, a consultant in California.
The study by the Research Council, part of the National Academies, was commissioned after one of the planes hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, flew past the Indian Point plant, about 40 miles north of New York City.
Congress asked the National Academies, advisers to the government on science and technology, to identify alternatives for replacing the power generated at Indian Point.
The Indian Point Energy Center, owned by New Orleans-based energy company Entergy Corp., includes two nuclear reactors on the banks of the Hudson River. It supplies almost one-quarter of the electricity delivered to the city and the lower Hudson Valley.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
