TALK about uncontrolled chain reactions. Nuclear fission has nothing on the serial finger-pointing under way in the debate over the Indian Point power plant. Whether or not you view Indian Point as the region’s most terrifying terror target, you can rest assured that some of the best minds in government are engaged in avoiding the appearance of making a decision. At a Congressional hearing held on Indian Point yesterday, Steven C. LaTourette, chairman of a House economic development subcommittee, diagnosed the problem between officials in New York and Washington as “bureaucratic, jurisdictional mumbo-jumbo.” The gentleman from Ohio was being kind. The question is whether evacuation plans would protect the public if an accident or attack released radiation from the plant 35 miles north of New York City. The situation has gotten hopelessly tangled. The plant needs an evacuation plan to operate, but it is the responsibility of local governments to devise those plans. Local officials now insist that their own plans will not protect the public. But the plant owners beg to differ, and federal officials seem headed in that direction. Full Story
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