WPCNR'S ADAM IN ALBANY. By 89th District Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. August 7, 2003: So much has changed in our lives since terrorists attacked New York and Washington. All of us have become acutely aware of how precarious our safety and that of our families can be. And it’s for that reason that I have been an outspoken critic of the Indian Point Evaluation Plan. I do not have any faith in the federal government’s assurances that all of us living in the shadow of the Indian Point nuclear plant are safe – and most importantly that we will be able to safely evacuate in case of an emergency at Indian Point.

Assemblyman Adam Bradley

       This isn’t just my opinion, either. This past January, I attended a meeting in Greenburgh to discuss a 550-page report released by James Lee Witt Associates, a company founded by the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which conducted a five-month study of the plant’s evacuation plans for the state. Their conclusion was that the evacuation plan was wholly inadequate.

FEMA and the NRC have to, by law, sign off on the evacuation plans only when they are assured and can guarantee that the plans are adequate to ensure the safety of surrounding communities in the event of a nuclear catastrophe. That assurance cannot be made in the case of Indian Point. In the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster, it’s naïve to think that people will heed official instructions. Families will understandably want to make sure children and loved ones are all right. As a result, our already congested and overburdened roads will be completely choked with traffic, making it impossible to evacuate. And that’s just in Westchester. Indian Point is only 35 miles or so upwind from Times Square and the millions of people who live in New York City proper.

       I remain concerned for the safety of our families and friends, and for the well-being of our communities. And as the terrorists have so effectively proven, we are vulnerable. It’s high time for the federal government to take our situation seriously. I urge FEMA in the strongest possible terms to rethink their horribly misguided certification of the evacuation plan and to protect the safety of our families instead of the interests of big energy corporate profits.

The greatest lesson we should have learned from September 11 is that the unthinkable can become a reality in a fraction of a second. Airliners can become missiles. Buildings once thought indestructible can be brought down – the lives of thousands of people can be lost. The Indian Point evacuation plan will not work, therefore Indian Point is no longer a risk worth taking in our communities. It’s time for the federal government to finally do something proactive to keep our families safe and secure. It’s time for the federal government to finally be honest and shut Indian Point down, and at a minimum, level with us in candid terms about the lack of any meaningful evacuation plan.