White Plains CitizeNetReporter - You Can Fly Over Indian Point, But Not DisneyWorld.

WPCNR INDIAN POINT INDEPENDENCE TIMES. From Kim Spahn of Riverkeeper. April 9, 2003: The Homeland Security Department and the Federal Aviation Administration refuse to declare a no-fly zone around the plant which is feared to be a terrorist target. Meanwhile the entertainment giant Disney successfully lobbied and received no-fly zones over its two U.S. theme parks Disney World and Disneyland from the feds.

“How can New Yorkers be expected to feel safe when our government does more to protect Mickey Mouse than the 20 million citizens who live next door to Indian Point,” Riverkeeper’s executive director Alex Matthiessen said in a written statement. “What additional evidence is required before the Homeland Security Department and FAA put appropriate measures in place to defend this obvious and vulnerable terrorist target?”

In the weeks following September 11, 2001, the FAA issued a no-fly zone over all the country’s nuclear plants. But now it’s legal for planes (both private and commercial) to fly over the plants, including the Indian Point facility, as long as the plane maintains an altitude of 2,000 feet.

In an investigation conducted by the New York Observer last year, it was discovered that no single entity – neither Entergy, Indian Point’s owner, nor any government agency including the Pentagon – claims responsibility for protecting Indian Point from an aerial attack.

Many industry experts and residents fear that a small private plane loaded with explosives could easily be used to attack targets at the plant such as the spent fuel rod pools which contain 1500 tons of high-level radioactive waste.

New York politicians, including Governor Pataki and U.S. Representative Eliot Engel, have requested the Homeland Security Department and FAA restrict the airspace over the nuclear plant.


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