Can a Fish Hold Its Breath For 3 Days?

Indian Point leaking radioactive tritium
By Greg Clary
The Journal News • February 19, 2009

BUCHANAN - Indian Point 2 is again leaking radioactive water and company officials may have to shut down the nuclear reactor to repair a broken pipe.
....
Company officials say they're hopeful of isolating the pipe and making the repairs in the next three days, without having to take the 1000-megawatt unit offline.
The tritiated water is going into the Indian Point's discharge canal, which drains into the Hudson River under federal permit.

Maybe it's a good thing - weren't the fish radioactive to begin with?

NY STATE SAYS NUKE PLANT KILLS TOO MANY FISH
THE JOURNAL NEWS (via the Associated Press)
Originally published Aug. 15, 2008

WHITE PLAINS - A state environmental official has ruled that the huge numbers of fish killed by the cooling system at the Indian Point nuclear plant prove that the system is harmful to the environment.
Estimates range from 900,000 to 1.2 billion fish killed each year as river water is sucked in for use as a coolant.
The ruling means the plant's owner, Entergy Nuclear, may no longer raise the environmental-impact issue as it battles the state's order to build costly towers that recycle cooling water. Entergy had argued that the river's fish populations remained stable despite the kills.
A company spokesman says Entergy still has several other issues to argue.

NRC: Indian Point guard's nap not a significant lapse
By GREG CLARY
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: October 24, 2007)

BUCHANAN - The security guard found sleeping on the job at Indian Point during the summer was not a significant safety lapse, according to a report released yesterday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The agency ruled that the Aug. 26 incident, in which an on-site NRC inspector needed nearly two minutes to awaken the guard, merited a green rating, the NRC's grade for "very low safety significance."

FEMA: Indian Point's new sirens inadequate
By GREG CLARY
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: September 13, 2007)

BUCHANAN - Indian Point's new $15 million emergency siren system won't receive federal approval until the nuclear plant can prove that the replacements are reliable and will sound at volumes loud and steady enough to meet federal standards.

In a strongly worded eight-page letter loaded with decibel standards and test result analysis, the Federal Emergency Management Agency yesterday said the warning system is inadequate.
.....................
The agency went so far as to note that Indian Point's documentation indicated to federal officials that the company "admits the sirens as installed and tested do not meet the design objectives ... and rather than take corrective action, Entergy is willing to have a system that does not meet its own emphatically stated objectives, as long as FEMA will allow them to."

That'll Show 'Em !!

FEDS SUSPEND INSPECTION AT INDIAN POINT 3
By GREG CLARY
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: September 11, 2007)
BUCHANAN - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has suspended an inspection at Indian Point 3 after federal experts found plant officials unprepared to answer questions about a series of unplanned shutdowns that led the agency to lower the reactor's safety rating in April.
"They just didn't have the documentation we needed," said NRC regional spokesman Neil Sheehan, noting that such suspensions are rare. "But also, the types of questions we are asking, they did not have answers for at this point."
Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates Indian Point, sent a letter Friday to the NRC requesting a delay, two days after the NRC pulled its special inspectors out of a review that normally takes weeks to complete.

Is that the way to commemorate Nine/Eleven or What?

Indian Point Software - Beta Release 2

THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: August 3, 2006)

BUCHANAN — A computer software malfunction silenced emergency sirens in the four-county evacuation zone around Indian Point for more than six hours yesterday morning, drawing criticism from environmentalists and public officials.
A computer program that continuously evaluates the readiness of the 156 sirens within a 10-mile radius of the nuclear power plants didn't function properly and shut down the emergency system just after midnight, said Jim Steets, a spokesman for the plants' owner, Entergy Nuclear Northeast.
Steets said a previous software glitch that created a similar problem in March was unrelated, but that the automatic program that telephones key Indian Point staff at home if a computer malfunctions was quickly activated.
That program was put in after the last computer problem.

And who was it who said "silence is golden"?

Siren Song - What You Don't Hear Can't Hurt You? (or Nobody's Perfect)

MOST INDIAN POINT SIRENS PASS TEST

By MICHAEL RISINIT
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: June 29, 2006)

BUCHANAN — Most of the emergency sirens in the four-county zone around the Indian Point nuclear power plants worked during yesterday's test.

While the results were a major improvement over a similar drill in March, when a software glitch shut down the 156-siren system for four hours, local emergency officials are looking for more. The sirens are meant to alert residents within a 10-mile radius of the plants of an emergency and to have them seek additional information from local media sources.