Used fuel stuck inside reactor at Indian Point

recordonline.com - Times Herald-Record - Hudson Valley

BUCHANAN - The Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan needs special permission from the federal government to shuffle around some highly radioactive used fuel in an unprecedented manner.

In a meeting last week with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, plant officials explained their dilemma:

Reactor Unit 3 is almost out of storage space for spent fuel - large rods of plutonium and uranium that have lost their juice but not their hazard. To keep operating, the plant needs to hoist that fuel out of the pool and move it to a longer-term storage site on the property. Problem is: there's no room inside the building for a crane large enough to lift the fuel. The waste is, for all intents and purposes, stuck inside.

How did this happen?...

(Picture: Nuclear Reactor Unit 3 at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan is almost out of room to store spent fuel. Above, a worker walks in protective clothing at Reactor Unit 2 in 2008.)