Credit WAMC, Allison Dunne
New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the decommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester County.
The Democrat says the suit challenges the NRC’s denial of New York’s petition for a hearing on concerns regarding the decommissioning plan, proposed by Holtec International and its subsidiaries. The suit also challenges the agency’s decision to allow Holtec to use more than $630 million of the plant’s dedicated decommissioning trust funds for spent fuel management costs.
The plant’s final functioning reactor is expected to be shut down by April. In November 2020, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the transfer of the Indian Point licenses from Entergy Nuclear Operations to Holtec International for decommissioning.
5:42
House Democrats and a handful of Republicans on Wednesday voted to impeach President Trump for a second time, citing his incitement of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Allison Dunne has reaction from a few Hudson Valley House members.
First-term Democratic Congressman Mondaire Jones of the 17th district delivered his first speech on the House floor since taking office.
“Who knew that my first speech on the House floor would be in connection with the second impeachment of Donald J. Trump, a lawless, unhinged dangerous president who poses an existential threat to our democracy,” Jones says. “I had hoped maybe I would be speaking about the For the People Act, or the need to pass real COVID-19 relief.”
4:42
Though the COVID-19 pandemic dominated the airwaves most of the year, there were some other significant developments in 2020. WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Allison Dunne highlights a few of them in an abbreviated year in review.
2020 began with finding ways to help the Rockand County community of Monsey following a December 28, 2019 machete attack during a Hannukah celebration at a rabbi’s home. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was in Rockland mid-January to announce funding for security infrastructure.
“I want everyone to know that we have learned from Monsey a painful lesson; we’ve learned from what’s going on; and we will respond and we will react and we will do everything in our power on every level to make sure this horrific act doesn’t happen again,” Cuomo says.
11:23
The $900 billion COVID-19 funding package President Trump signed Sunday contains some $4 billion for the MTA, which includes Metro-North Railroad. Proposed layoffs and drastic service cuts can be shelved, for now. WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Allison Dunne spoke with Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi about what the funding means and more.
First, the Federal Railroad Administration on Tuesday announced there is now full implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) technology on all required freight and passenger routes across the country, meeting a December 31 deadline. Metro-North and Long Island Railroad announced December 23 they had completed full implementation. Through PTC, the trains automatically communicate in real time with central dispatching offices – sharing information on train position, speed and the actions of the train engineer. If a train is traveling too fast, the system automatically takes control of the train to slow it down while alerting