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Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

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The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

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The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

NRC Orders New Analysis of Indian Point

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Friday, May 6, 2016   

NEW YORK - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ruled that its own staff analysis of the cost of a serious accident at the Indian Point nuclear plant is inaccurate.

According to the commission's unanimous decision, the analysis by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board contains factual errors that could be misleading.

Cliff Weathers, communications director for the environmental group Riverkeeper, said he believes the ruling will bolster the arguments those opposed to the plant have been making all along.

"A new analysis -- and an honest analysis, if it's done that way -- will show that this plant is not safe, it's not secure and also not vital for the area," Weathers said.

The original 40-year licenses for both reactors at Indian Point have expired, and the owners have applied to the NRC for 20-year extensions. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been calling for closing the facility.

Indian Point has experienced a number of serious incidents, including a recent massive leak of radioactive tritium into the groundwater. At Indian Point 2, which is currently offline, Weathers said, more than a quarter of the bolts holding the inner walls of the reactor together are either damaged or missing.

"That's an extremely serious event," he said. "There's never been anything like this at any nuclear power plant that we know of."

More than 17 million people live within a 50-mile radius of Indian Point, which is located 41 miles from the center of Manhattan.

Proponents of the plant have argued that it's needed because it generates 10 percent of the state's electricity and a quarter of the power used by New York City. Weathers said that claim was examined in a recent study commissioned by Riverkeeper, "and they have found that, yes, Indian Point's energy is replaceable today, and the cost to consumers would be negligible."

He said new transmission efficiencies already in place, renewables now coming online and the recent repair of three gas-fired power plants damaged by Hurricane Sandy can make up the difference.


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