Reactor shut down at New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant following an 'electrical disturbance'

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The Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant is even older and more antique than the Fukushima #1. Almost 20,000,000 New Yorkers live within a 50 mile radius of the installation. The nuclear waste stored on the site has been the subject of litigation with significant ramification for the US nuclear industry .

BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) - A reactor at a suburban New York nuclear power plant was shut down following an electrical disturbance at a switch yard outside the plant.

Plant owner Entergy Nuclear said Indian Point 3 was shut down at 7:20 p.m. Monday. They said the unit's main electrical generator automatically shut down as a protective measure.

The company said there was no release of radioactivity and no threat to the safety of workers or the public. The cause of the electrical disturbance was not immediately known.

Last month, the reactor was shut down during a transformer fire.

The other reactor on the site was unaffected. Together the reactors generate about a quarter of the power used in New York City and Westchester County.

The facility is about 30 miles north of midtown Manhattan.

Comment: Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant: A disaster in the making

As Robert Kennedy Jr., Chief Prosecuting Attorney for Riverkeeper and Senior Attorney at NRDC, said:

"The more you learn about Indian Point, the more you know it must close. It's too old, near too many people, and too vulnerable to fire, earthquake, outside attack and a host of other potential disasters. What's more, we simply don't need Indian Point's dirty, dangerous power: current surpluses are sufficient to consign Indian Point to the scrap heap when its licenses expire if not sooner. New York is safer, more secure and simply better off without Indian Point."