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Activists protest nuclear plant at CB 2 meet

By Dustin Brown

A contingent of activists stepped up to the microphone at last Thursday’s Community Board 2 meeting to demand that its members sign on to a resolution calling for the Indian Point nuclear power plant to shut down in light of the risks they say it poses to its neighbors.

But the board, which was sharply divided on the issue, chose to hold off on any action until members could educate themselves on the issue and solicit more comment from the public.

Nine Sunnyside residents spoke consecutively at the meeting to implore board members to vote on a resolution demanding the closure of Indian Point, a Westchester County facility that many have labeled a potential target for terrorists.

“The evacuation plan is for 10 miles, whereas the serious injury rate is for 50 miles,” said Ann Eagan, the Queens coordinator of the New York City Campaign to Close Indian Point, which organized the activists to speak at the meeting. “Where would we go? How would we get out of here?”

Ten community boards around the city have already signed onto a similar resolution, Eagan said, although none have done so in Queens. The activists’ goal was to convince members of Community Board 2, which covers Sunnyside, Woodside and parts of Long Island City, to become the first.

The day after the meeting, an independent report commissioned by Gov. George Pataki concluded that the emergency plans now in place for Indian Point are inadequate to protect the public and fail to consider the possibility of a terrorist assault on the facility.

The activists’ appearance sparked a few caustic responses from board members, forcing Chairman Joseph Conley to scold those who spoke out of turn to challenge the speakers.

“If you can’t show them the courtesy, I think you’re a disgrace,” Conley told the board. “If you don’t agree with the speaker, bite your tongue.”

The activists promoted alternative forms of energy, like solar and wind power, as viable replacements for the electricity that would be lost if Indian Point were to close.

“I would like to think that in a city as creative as this one, we could within a year be making progress with alternative forms of energy,” said C. K. Edel, a professor from the Queens College Department of Urban Studies.

Some board members questioned whether or not Indian Point was even a suitable topic for the board to be discussing.

“Here we have a nuclear power plant which is a long way away. Whatever we say is not going to have any influence on way or another,” said board member Edward Aretz. “However we vote, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference.”

But Stephen Cooper, the board’s vice chairman, countered that the collective voice of all the community boards in the city may indeed carry some weight.

“If the entire city of New York stood up and was for or against it, it would have an effect in Albany,” Cooper said.

Although a resolution on Indian Point has yet to be introduced to the board as a whole, the two committees that have voted on the issue emerged with opposing stances.

Dorothy Morehead said the board’s environmental committee, which she chairs, had voted unanimously in support of the plant’s closure at a meeting last year.

“Our committee agreed that Indian Point should be closed for a variety of reasons,” Morehead said in a phone interview. “The primary one is that it is a terrorist target and we don’t feel it’s adequately protected or can be. The evacuation plan is totally inadequate.”

But the city services committee voted on the same issue, unanimously calling for Indian Point to remain open.

“We have to look at things intellectually, not emotionally,” said Carol Terrano, a member of the city services committee. “We can’t be victims of fear.”

The board tentatively decided to refrain from voting on a resolution pertaining to Indian Point until a community forum could be held on the issue to educate board members and solicit input from neighborhood residents.

Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.