Nuclear

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has put the weight of his office behind an effort by the Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) to challenge the financial ability of three nuclear power plants to continue operating safely.

Schneiderman  recently sent the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) a 16-page letter essentially supporting and supplementing AGREE’s petition challenging the financial qualifications of the FitzPatrick nuclear plant in Oswego County, the Pilgrim plant near Boston, and Vermont Yankee.

by Jessica Azulay and Linda A. DeStefano

This year might go down in the history books as the year activists finally turned the tide against the nuclear power industry. It may also go down as the beginning of one of nuclear power’s most dangerous eras.

In the 1970s, anti-nuclear activists fought the industry to a virtual stalemate. Between 1979 and 2012,  the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) didn’t issue a single license for a new nuclear power plant. But victories against existing plants were rare. Fewer than ten were shut down permanently from 1980 to 2012.