ALBANY, NY — The New York State Department of Public Service and the Indian Point Closure Task Force announced that the owner and operator of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in the Village of Buchanan, Westchester County, has transferred all spent nuclear fuel to dry cask storage. Dry cask storage, according to a statement, is a safer, more secure storage practice. 

The heightened risks posed by Indian Point’s long-standing practice of storing spent nuclear fuel in densely packed spent fuel cooling pools, the statement continued, have been of concern to New York State, contributing to the state’s opposition to the relicensing of Indian Point more than 15 years ago, the state’s successful effort to permanently close the facility in 2021, and the state’s insistence that the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission oppose Holtec’s waivers for its post-defueled emergency plan until all spent nuclear fuel was out of densely packed spent fuel pools. After less than 30 months since those requirements were imposed, all 3,998 spent fuel assemblies are now contained within 127 reinforced concrete and steel casks on the site’s independent spent fuel storage installations.