The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied Entergy's appeal of an earlier decision that would require it to conduct additional safety studies before acquiring a license extension for the Indian Point nuclear plant.
Entergy's licenses for the two reactors north of New York City expire in 2013 and 2015, according to the NRC. It submitted an application to the NRC for a 20-year renewal in 2007. Regulators issued a safety evaluation report for the renewal in 2009, followed by a final environmental impact statement in 2010.
But in July, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that Entergy still needed to conduct analyses of the plant's severe accident mitigation measures, according to a release from the New York attorney general's office.
Entergy appealed to the NRC, which denied the utility’s request on procedural grounds. The decision does not preclude further appeals, and an Entergy spokesman told the Westchester Journal News that the company had not decided what to do next. The utility operates two roughly 1020 megawatt Westinghouse pressurized water reactors at Indian Point first licensed in the 1970s.