By William Opalka
Entergy wants state regulators to appoint an administrative law judge to counteract “political pressures” and referee disputes with New York officials in an investigation of the Indian Point nuclear power plant’s operations (15-02730).
The plant owner on Tuesday asked the New York Public Service Commission to appoint the judge to handle disputes over confidential documents and other matters related to an investigation of the plant ordered last month by Gov. Andrew Cuomo after two unplanned outages.
Cuomo has called for closure of the plant for several years because of its proximity to New York City. He said the plant’s two units have had 13 unplanned shutdowns since June 2012, including two incidents nine days apart last month.
“We must ensure that the 20 million people that live within the shadow of Indian Point are truly safe from a nuclear incident … [so] I would specifically request that you examine the capital and maintenance budgets at the plants and their potential impact on these outages, and the impact these sudden outages can have on the continued safe operation of the plants,” Cuomo wrote in a letter to PSC Chairman Audrey Zibelman on Dec. 16.
Cuomo ordered the PSC to report the findings of its investigation by Feb. 15.
In two rounds of interrogatories in recent weeks, Entergy said, PSC staff sought information on finances and operations that go beyond a state’s jurisdiction and are the purview of federal regulators.
“Given the political and timing pressures being imposed on [Department of Public Service] staff, there is a particular need for an impartial ALJ to resolve Entergy’s objections,” the company wrote.
“The investigation is equally unprecedented in that it seeks highly detailed financial and operational information regarding Indian Point spanning across five- to 10-year time periods, even though Indian Point must earn its revenues from the wholesale markets pursuant to tariffs within the exclusive regulatory authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.”
Entergy said it will cooperate “in good faith” with many aspects of the investigation but finds the scope “objectionable.”
In December the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Entergy it can continue to operate Indian Point’s Unit 3 under its existing 40-year license, which expired last month, while its license renewal review continues. Unit 2’s license expired in 2013, but it is also operating under an extension while the company’s application is under review.
The two outages that prompted Cuomo’s action occurred on Dec. 5 and 14.
In the first incident, a faulty electrical breaker controlling a roof fan caused a trip at Unit 2, according to NRC. The commission said operators manually shut down the reactor when the faulty breaker caused a drop in voltage to the mechanisms controlling about 10 of the reactor’s control rods.
On Dec. 14, Entergy said the shutdown was caused by a “disturbance” on the non-nuclear side of the plant that connects to the grid.