At the end of this month of April, the Indian Point 3 utility nuclear reactor will close. Unit 3 was commissioned in August 1976. It has operated for roughly 45 years in Buchanan, which is 35 miles north on the Hudson River from New York City.
The closure of any of the remaining utility reactors in the U.S. (and around the world) should be cause for celebration. I have worked with various environmental groups since the early 1990s in opposition to utility reactors. These include Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, Radiation and Public Health Project and Riverkeeper.
Since the defunct Long Island Lighting Company was able to torment and gouge its rate payers by building, commissioning, decommissioning and eventually closing and disassembling its failed Shoreham project on Long Island, I have been keenly interested in the games public utilities have played in their ceaseless quest to sell nuclear power as clean and safe. The lies that have been told are mind-numbing. The assertion that nuclear power is clean is outrageous. The mining of uranium alone is horrifically toxic. Furthermore, fuel rods don't grow on trees. They are processed at facilities that use tremendous amounts of energy and release significant amounts of carbon.