After years of incidents, ranging from fluid leaks to power failures, the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, New York, is scheduled to be decommissioned by 2021, with one of the plant’s reactors scheduled to shut down by April 2020. However, New York Attorney General Letitia James is worried that the company tasked with handling that process isn’t qualified, and she’s willing to take legal action to ensure that the state is more involved in the decommissioning process.

“It is essential that the decommissioning of Indian Point be rapid, complete, and safe,” said James. “In that light, I have multiple, grave concerns about the application now before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that would hand off the responsibility for Indian Point’s decommissioning to a company with absolutely no experience in such an enormous, complex, and consequential undertaking. I am committed to ensuring – through legal action if necessary – that the State of New York is granted full participation in this application proceeding and all other decision-making related to Indian Point’s decommissioning. The health, safety, and well-being of New Yorkers deserve nothing less.”

The NRC on Thursday accepted an application from Entergy, the owner of Indian Point, to transfer the facility to subsidiaries of New Jersey-based Holtec International, to handle the decommissioning.

Last week, James led a coalition of twelve states in supporting a challenge brought by Massachusetts against the NRC for approving the transfer of a power plant in that state to Holtec without allowing feedback.

The coalition’s amicus brief (a brief issued by a person or group not directly involved in the case, but which has information that could be relevant to it) described decommissioning as “a long-term and costly process that poses significant public health and environmental risks, including possible exposure of workers and the public to harmful levels of radiation and other toxins.”

When a nuclear plant is decommissioned, the nuclear reactor is shut down, spent fuel is removed and safely stored, and the facility must be deconstructed so that any residual radioactivity is reduced to acceptable levels.

The amicus brief alleges that Holtec does not have adequate decommissioning experience and had spent funds reserved for the decommissioning of a Massachusetts power plant on other expenses, which may not leave enough money to cover all decommissioning costs.

“Unexpected costs are almost certain to arise because Holtec’s cost estimates were based on historical data and do not account for unanticipated site conditions or events. Indeed, since the August 2019 license transfer, Holtec has extended the projected timeline for site restoration by three years — a cost not included in Holtec’s submissions to NRC,” the brief alleged.

The briefing gave a couple examples of power plant decommissionings that took much longer than what is proposed for Indian Point. A Connecticut power plant called Connecticut Yankee ceased operation in 1996 and took ten years to decommission at a cost of $893 million. A power plant in Wisconsin that was shut down in 2013 isn’t expected to be completely decommissioned until 2073, with an estimated cost of $1 billion. While Holtec says it has a trust of $2.1 billion set aside for Indian Point’s decommissioning, it hasn’t yet submitted any reports outlining its budget for the project, according to the brief.

“[Holtec] it has not submitted the required decommissioning reports that would explain how it can oversee the entire retirement process within that budget, and the materials it has provided to [New York] are so incomplete and redacted that the State’s experts cannot replicate Holtec’s conclusion that the trust’s funds are sufficient,” the briefing stated.

Regarding transferring Indian Point to Holtec, Entergy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Leo Denault said in April of last year, “The sale of Indian Point to Holtec is expected to result in the completion of decommissioning decades sooner than if the site were to remain under Entergy’s ownership. “With its deep experience and technological innovations, Holtec’s ability to decommission Indian Point will benefit stakeholders in the surrounding community.”

Meanwhile, New York and other interested parties will continue to fight for a say in the process.