However, due to a number of factors including sustained low wholesale energy prices that reduced revenues, as well as pressure from local anti-nuclear groups and then-Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, it was announced that the plant would shut down by 2021.

[10] Unit 3 currently holds the world record for the longest uninterrupted operating period for a light water commercial power reactor.

The reactors at Indian Point are protected by containment domes made of steel-reinforced concrete that is 40 inches (1.0 m) thick, with a carbon steel liner.

[28] The reactors were built on land that originally housed the Indian Point Amusement Park, which was acquired by Consolidated Edison (ConEdison) on October 14, 1954.

Though anti-nuclear group Riverkeeper notes "Radioactive leakage from the plant containing several radioactive isotopes, such as strontium-90, cesium-137, cobalt-60, nickel-63 and tritium, a rarely-occurring isotope of hydrogen, has flowed into groundwater that eventually enters the Hudson River in the past,[30] there is no evidence radiation from the plant had ever posed a significant hazard to local residents or wildlife.

[33] Concerns were also raised over the alternate proposal to building new cooling towers, which would cut down forest land that is suspected to be used as breeding ground by muskrat and mink.

[34] However, Cuomo's motivation for closing the plant was called into question after it was revealed that two top former aides, under federal prosecution for influence-peddling, had lobbied on behalf of natural gas company Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) to kill Indian Point.

[36] In April 2016, climate scientist James Hansen took issue with calls to shut the plant down, including those from Senator Bernie Sanders, calling the efforts "an orchestrated campaign to mislead the people of New York about the essential safety and importance of Indian Point nuclear plant to address climate change.

[43] In 2004, Indian Point was the subject of a documentary, Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable, directed by filmmaker Rory Kennedy and starring Riverkeeper lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.[44] On September 23, 2007, the anti-nuclear group Friends United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE) filed legal papers with the NRC opposing the relicensing of Unit 2.

[45] On December 1, 2007, Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer called a press conference with the participation of environmental advocacy groups Clearwater and Riverkeeper to announce their united opposition to the re-licensing of Indian Point.

[45] On April 3, 2010, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ruled that Indian Point violated the federal Clean Water Act,[46] because "the power plant's water-intake system kills nearly a billion aquatic organisms a year, including the shortnose sturgeon, an endangered species.

Advocates in favor of recertifying Indian Point included former New York City mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudolph W. Giuliani.

[citation needed] They said that possible consequences of closure will be a sharp increase in the cost of electricity for downstate users and even "rotating black-outs".

[53] Indian Point Energy Center was given a heightened amount of scrutiny and was regulated more heavily than various other power plants in the state of New York (i.e., by the NRC in addition to FERC, the NYSPSC, the NYISO, the NYSDEC, and the EPA).

[63] On March 10, 2009 the Indian Point Power Plant was awarded the fifth consecutive top safety rating for annual operations by the Federal regulators.

[64] A 2003 report commissioned by then-Governor George Pataki concluded that the "current radiological response system and capabilities are not adequate to...protect the people from an unacceptable dose of radiation in the event of a release from Indian Point".

The spent fuel pools at Indian Point are set in bedrock and are constructed of concrete walls that are four to six feet wide, with a quarter-inch thick stainless steel inner liner.

[76][88] Indian Point began dry cask storage of spent fuel rods in 2008, which is a safe and environmentally sound option according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

[90] Dry cask storage systems are designed to resist floods, tornadoes, projectiles, temperature extremes, and other unusual scenarios.

[91] In 2008, researchers from Columbia University's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory located a previously unknown active seismic zone running from Stamford, Connecticut, to the Hudson Valley city of Peekskill, New York—the intersection of the Stamford-Peekskill line with the well-known Ramapo Fault—which passes less than a mile north of Indian Point.

[94] Entergy executives have also noted that "Indian Point had been designed to withstand an earthquake much stronger than any on record in the region, though not one as powerful as the quake that rocked Japan.

[100] According to an analysis of U.S. Census data for MSNBC, the 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Indian Point was 272,539, an increase of 17.6% during the previous ten years.

"The exact size and shape of each EPZ is a result of detailed planning which includes consideration of the specific conditions at each site, unique geographical features of the area, and demographic information.

This preplanned strategy for an EPZ provides a substantial basis to support activity beyond the planning zone in the extremely unlikely event it would be needed.

[95] Indian Point is protected by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including a National Guard base within a mile of the facility, as well as by private on-site security forces.

[106] In September 2006, the Indian Point Security Department successfully completed mock assault exercises required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

[3] A report by the New York Building Congress, a construction industry association, has said that NYC will need additional natural gas pipelines to accommodate the city's increasing demand for energy.

[119] A natural gas-fired power plant, Cricket Valley Energy Center rated at 1,100 MW, was constructed and is operational in Dover, New York as of the second quarter of 2020.

[122][123][124][125][126] An energy highway initiative was also prompted by this order (generally speaking, additional lines on the Edic-Pleasant Valley and the Oakdale-Fraser transmission corridors), which is still going through the regulatory process in both the NYISO and NYSPSC.

The generation capacity lost by closure of the Indian Point plant was largely replaced by fossil gas,[6][3][9] substantially increasing carbon emissions.