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Bill Hanauer, Trustee, 2006 Democratic and Independence Party Candidate for Mayor, Lays out His Background and His Positions

Position Paper 2. Indian Point

Excerpts from a Statement of Bill Hanauer, Trustee of the Village of Ossining on June 2, 2005 Presented at a Rally to Close Indian Point at Mariandale Retreat and Conference Center, Ossining, NY

When my family and I chose to move to Ossining from Manhattan in 1996, we were keenly aware of the proximity of our new home to Indian Point. We had copies of an emergency evacuation plan which was wholly inadequate. Indeed, due to the geography of the area and its significant growth in population since Indian Point was built, an adequate plan would clearly be impossible to create.

Many of us choose to live here for Northern Westchester's slower pace. We mind slow traffic less than our friends in the New York City. But, after a nuclear mishap, our roads would be entirely inadequate for the orderly evacuation of the area by a justifiably anxious population. They are barely adequate now to handle rush hour traffic on a weekday. And within a short period, Route 9 will be narrowed in Ossining to one lane in each direction plus turning lanes at appropriate points. Our school busses, now corralled in Montrose when not in use, could not bring children to their homes or even reach our schools in the event of a nuclear calamity.

Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, periodic discharges of small amounts of contaminated steam from the Indian Point — deemed harmless — and the threat that terrorism poses to our lives demand action now.

I believe that it would be optimal if Indian Point were closed today. But I do not think it possible. If not, then at the very latest, Indian Point must close when its license expires. That license must not be renewed.

Until the day it is decommissioned, our Federal, State, County, and local governments, as well as private industry must build the political will and, without the usual political acrimony, create a safer future. Together, we must address very important and difficult issues:

• We must guarantee the security of Indian Point and, therefore, the entire New York Metropolitan Area.
• We must replace the energy that Indian Point currently generates with an appropriate number of more—benign plants — fuelled, not with volatile natural gas or high—pollutant coal, but, taking the lead of sister states from Vermont to California, of our friends in the Netherlands and of other progressive, conservation—minded allies, fuelled by renewable sources of energy, such as water, wind, and the sun.
• We, the People, the Federal Government must find agreement on safe methods of storing the spent fuel rods already stockpiled in pools, as well those still in the reactors; provide storage sites that are secure and agreeable to their host locations and safe means of transport to them.
• We must re—employ workers from a closed Indian Point at the new generators of power and provide employment for the hundreds of workers in ancillary industries across the state that would otherwise be displaced by the plant's closing. Hundreds of millions of dollars in direct and indirect compensation in labor income must be protected.
• We must not lose the expenditures of the plant with private businesses in Westchester, Putnam, Orange, Rockland and Dutchess Counties, including services to buildings, water supply and sewage services, business services, and equipment rental and leasing ($16.8 million in 2002). The operation of newly—constructed power plants must and will replace that income and tax income to Westchester County.

We have our work ahead of us all.