Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station isn’t the only plant being looked at to power a data center. 

Holtec International, the company decommissioning the Indian Point nuclear power plant submitted a request to the New York Independent System Operator in October for 200 megawatts of power. The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)  is the organization responsible for managing New York’s electric grid and its competitive wholesale electric marketplace.

However, unlike the former Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania, Holtec’s request would not involve restarting the plant, but rather pulling electricity from the grid.

At the December 5 Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board meeting, Indian Point Site Vice President Frank Spagnuolo described the inquiry to the NYISO  as part of a future business development effort aimed at reusing the property. “Currently we have no offer,” Spagnulo said. “We’re not working with any outside Amazon, Microsoft, nobody, for a data center or anything. We’re just looking to see what’s out there and what the availability is.”

The notion of a data center which consumes a lot of power and water saw some opposition from several speakers including Jocelyn DeCrescenzo.

“I would think if they’re hoping for a data center to come in and use their grounds, that the data center would have to supply their own energy needs via solar panel fields or wind farms,” she said. “Or something that would not harm the environment and not need the kind of energy that is being proposed.”

While talking to the Herald, environmental attorney Susan Shapiro criticized nuclear centers being turned back on and data centers being opened for artificial intelligence.

“AI has no interest in human life, so we have to choose, are we going to support AI that really has no use for us as human beings and life and the health things that we need to live like clean water and clean air,” she said. “Or are we going to fight back and say, ‘No, we don’t need AI. We want authentic life and safe and clean water for our children and our future generations.’”

Part of the process of preparing the 240-acre property for new uses involves drilling wells and taking core samples. In July inspectors found a radioactive isotope of cesium on site. While performing surface soil sampling on the property around the training building, one soil sample was found to contain elevated cesium-137 concentration. 

“The area was not identified as an area of concern,” Spagnulo said. “We did not expect to see any cesium or any radioactive components there at all.”

As a result, Holtec is investigating where the contamination came from by further sampling. When completed, the contaminated soil will be removed and shipped. Spagnulo said they could not rule out a natural cause such as runoff to explain the contaminant.

Richard Webster of the environmental group Riverkeeper said the time taken for the radioactivity of cesium to reduce half of its initial value is about 30 years. While he said it isn’t a historic contamination, he expressed concern.

“It’s never good when you find radioactive materials that you don’t expect to be there,” Webster said. “And cesium is something the reactor generates while it’s working so if you’re gonna look around for where did the cesium come from one of the primary candidates would be the former operating reactor.”

During the public comment period of the board meeting, environmental attorney Shapiro said the discovery rang familiar to when cesium was accidentally found along the edge of spent fuel pool 2. When inspectors started investigating, they found there were cesium leaks throughout the site and in the fractured bedrock, she said.

Regulation proposal seeks to expand saline waters exemption to lower Hudson River

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has recently proposed amendments to their regulations governing permits for water withdrawal from the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound. 

Under current regulations, withdrawals from the Ocean and Sound do not need water withdrawal permits. Under the proposed change, the exemption would be expanded to the waters of the lower Hudson River, stopping at the northern border of Westchester County and Rockland County.

Regional Director Kelly Turturro said this would allow consistency with the current exemption to include waters that are directly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean.

“While this will affect the Indian Plant facility in the short term, the facility will also not require a water withdrawal permit in the near future,” she said. “As they decommission the facility they will no longer be withdrawing water from the Hudson River.”

According to Turturro, anyone withdrawing more than 100,000 gallons per day is required to have a water withdrawal permit. This, she said, is so the DEC can regulate the quantities of water that are withdrawn to ensure they are protecting the environment.

This amendment to DEC regulations didn’t sit well with both State Sen. Pete Harckham and Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg. Both questioned why the DEC  was proposing this amendment now. Turturro said while Indian Point will be affected by one aspect of the regulations, it wasn’t the specific reason they were changing the regulations.

Harckham queried Turturro:  “Is there any thought to moving forward with your other changes, but exempting the Indian Point area until the decommissioning is complete?” 

“I say that again just because you in your thoroughness you add one and one and get two. Sometimes the public adds one and one and gets five and wondering ‘alright, what could possibly go on that site that could use unlimited water?’”

The DEC is taking comments on the proposed amendment to regulations until the end of January.

Decommissioning Oversight Board talks property releases

Although the completion of Indian Point’s decommissioning may be years away, the conversation about partial site release was presented by Holtec’s Spagnuolo.

Partial site release is currently scheduled for 2041 and includes everything except the assistive pad. In order to release any piece of property, Holtec must ensure that the radiation exposure limits are in conformity with the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)  for different groups of people, that there would be no impact to emergency planning, physical security, or effluent releases, as well as several more regulatory requirements.

During the public comment section, Pamela Hudson, warned that there is no known safe level of exposure to low level ionizing radiation. She referenced her sister’s late father-in-law, Dr. Herbert Abrams, an expert of nuclear medicine, and recalled him being interviewed in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.

Pamela Hudson, a nuclear activist, encouraged Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board members to watch a lecture by the late Dr. Herbert Abrams on the effects of low levels of ionizing radiation. He was an expert of nuclear medicine and Nobel Prize winning founder of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. 

“(Abrams explained), there is no known safe level of exposure to so-called low level ionizing radiation,” Hudson said. “This is from a guy who knows better than just about anyone in this room, me included. What radiation does to human beings, forget about safe allowable levels of exposure. There is no such thing.”