Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of stories about New York’s efforts to deal with the effects of climate change. You can read the first story here.
Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal to build a new nuclear reactor revealed the stark dividing lines that separate renewable energy advocates.
Renewable energy advocates agree on reaching zero emissions, a goal the state is supposed to hit by 2040. Some support Hochul’s proposal, arguing nuclear investment will provide a reliable energy baseline that could expedite the transition to a fully renewable energy grid.
But other environmental advocates vehemently oppose any nuclear investment, arguing those resources ought to be directly funding renewable energy.
Hochul’s proposal is likely to affect Central New York, as the Nine Mile Point and James A. Fitzpatrick nuclear power plants are already in operation in Oswego County. The new plant, the governor said, will have to generate at least 1 gigawatt of power, which is enough to power around 750,000 homes, according to a report from CNET. That new plant could be placed in Oswego, State Sen. Chris Ryan said.
Hochul proposed the New York Power Authority to develop the nuclear energy facility in Upstate New York in hopes of satisfying growing energy demands, continuing the state’s march toward a zero emissions future, and creating well-paying jobs.
In a statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state “must embrace an energy policy of abundance that centers on energy independence and supply chain security to ensure New York controls its energy future.”
The prospect of a new nuclear power plant upstate has sparked mixed reactions from Indigenous legal experts, academics, environmental advocates, and elected officials representing Onondaga County in Albany.
Hochul’s announcement has exhumed age-old questions on nuclear: How green an energy source is nuclear? And is the development of nuclear expeditious and cost-effective enough to make a difference against the effects of climate change?
‘Probably our only way forward’
Paul Wilson, a nuclear engineering expert, is bullish on nuclear energy.
Wilson, the chair of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, believes nuclear energy could make up 40% of New York’s and the country’s energy grid. Right now, nuclear energy constitutes about 19% of the nation’s energy ecosystem.
“I think it plays an important role in a clean energy future, particularly as a balanced mix with renewable energy and other sources of clean energy,” Wilson said.
Wilson believes that advancements in reactor technology have made nuclear energy more viable.
The United States has only ever constructed large-scale reactors, such as the plants in Oswego County. Within the nuclear energy industry, there is a growing interest in small modular reactors.
These small modular reactors would produce closer to 300 to 500 megawatts, but would be more efficient to manufacture.
“Those large reactors, let’s say 1000 megawatts or more, are probably the cheapest way to produce nuclear electricity today, but they’re so expensive to build that it’s difficult for companies to put together that much capital and invest it in one reactor,” Wilson said.
Wilson sees potential in “micro-reactors.” The technology is right now speculative and conceptual. They could be mass produced in factories, shipped to local communities, produce around 50 megawatts of power for 5 to 10 years and then shipped back to the factory and replaced with a new model, Wilson said. European nations and the U.S. military are investing in programs to develop small modular reactors and microreactors.
Canada recently signed a contract to construct the first small modular reactor in North America on the banks of Lake Ontario, with a projected completion date of 2029.
Wilson, however, acknowledges concerns about nuclear energy. Society doesn’t have a viable “political and economic and technical solution” to manage radioactive waste in the long-term — the 100,000-plus years scientists believe it needs to be securely stored, Wilson said.
“We don’t have a great history in our country and around the world of dealing with these legacy wastes very well,” Wilson said.
Wilson thinks the benefits of investing in nuclear outweigh the ongoing use of fossil fuel.
Local state representatives have gotten behind Hochul’s proposal. Ryan, the state senator who represents Oswego County and parts of Onondaga County, said the plant can not only generate consistent clean power, but it can also create jobs. The project could bring more than 1,000 new jobs to the region, he said.
Ryan hopes the new plant is built in the 50th Senate District, noting that his district is a fit given that it is home to two other plants.
“We’re going to need to have more energy on the grid, plain and simple. That’s all there is to it.” he said. “This provides a way to do that — clean and non-carbon emitting.”
Others, like State Sen. Rachel May, say they begrudgingly accept the potential nuclear plant. May prefers renewable energy but accepted the governor’s announcement.
She said she understands the need for more energy generation in the state, especially in the advent of investments in artificial intelligence and surges in extreme weather linked to climate change.
“You can put me down as reluctantly accepting that this is probably our only way forward,” May said.
‘Nuclear reactors are not green’
The governor’s announcement has also galvanized nuclear’s opposition.
Some environmental advocates said the state has a mandate to develop 15 gigawatts of publicly owned renewable energy facilities based on the Build Public Renewables Act of 2023. Developing a nuclear plant would only detract from that mission, they said.
“New Yorkers cannot afford another bill-raising boondoggle,” said Jessica Azulay, the director of the Central New York-based Alliance For A Green Economy, said in a statement.
Azulay implored the governor to reduce energy costs for ratepayers by instead building wind, solar and geothermal. She and Joe Heath, legal counsel for the Onondaga Nation, believe nuclear energy is too costly for ratepayers.
Heath also argued nuclear energy is not green and poses existential costs to the planet that dwarf the costs of climate change. He grew up in Oswego County, where three of New York’s active nuclear reactors continue to produce energy. From 1968 to 1970, Heath served as a submarine officer in the Navy and was trained in nuclear power.
“Nukes are dangerous. The essential nature of a nuclear reactor is that it’s a controlled nuclear explosion,” Heath said. “We shouldn’t think that they’re just something you plug in and there’s no risk involved.”
A new power plant could further harm the resources in the Nation’s stewardship, which the Nation has expressed to state officials, Heath said.
In 2019, a coalition of Indigenous leaders that includes the Nation, the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, and the American Indian Law Alliance, released a red paper opposing nuclear energy on the shores of Lake Ontario.
The 46-page study — titled “Nuclear reactors are not green” — detailed a long history of the significant suffering nuclear energy development has caused Indigenous groups around the country.
The report covers, among others, a 1979 disaster in Church Rock, New Mexico. The breach of a containment dam at a uranium processing mill sent over 1,100 tons of radioactive waste into the Puerco River. The waste flowed 80 miles downstream into the Navajo Nation’s recognized territory. Ninety-four million gallons of radioactive water also entered the Puerco River, killing cattle and crops and harming humans who have lived in the area for decades.
The catastrophe at Church Rock was the largest radioactive accident in world history until the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Despite Church Rock being declared a national Superfund site in 1983, remediation efforts by United Nuclear Corporation, the corporation responsible for the spill, have only addressed roughly 1% of the affected soil.
Near Buffalo, the Seneca Nation and federal government is still responding to nuclear waste exposure from the 1960s and 1970s. The former West Valley nuclear reprocessing center generated over 600,000 gallons of liquid high-level waste stored at the site, near the Cattaraugus Creek. The Department of Energy is still cleaning up contamination, having just finished demolition of a portion of the West Valley site on June 24, 45 years after cleanup began. In 2010, crews had to install an in-ground wall to filter contaminated groundwater at the site.
More recently, heavy snow and rain caused flooding at Lake Ontario. In 2017, the high waters reached within one foot of setting off a low-level emergency plan at the Nine Mile Point reactor.
Heath believes that the group of leaders will continue to be ignored. The state has not contacted the Onondaga Nation nor its coalition partners regarding the governor’s plans for a new reactor.
Spokespeople for NYPA and Gov. Hochul both told Central Current they will host a robust public comment process, and that ultimately, they would not bring a nuclear power plant to a community that doesn’t want it.
“My guess is that Westchester county will not raise its hand,” Heath said, “but that rural ones with no jobs, like Oswego, will.”
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