Cuomo 'concerned' over upstate nuke plant

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday he was "concerned" by a news report ranking a nuclear reactor at Indian Point as the most at-risk in the United States from earthquake damage.

The MSNBC.com report, using information provided by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Indian Point's Reactor 3 had a one in 10,000 chance of suffering core damage from a quake because it is located very near a fault line.

"Frankly, that was surprising to me," Cuomo said at a news conference on the state budget. "That is a matter of concern. We are going to be checking into it -- the statement and the basis for the statement -- immediately."

The report came after the tsunami in Japan caused a potential radiation crisis and deadly explosions at a nuclear plant there.

Cuomo has long been a critic of Indian Point, which is 30 miles north of New York City in the village of Buchanan. In 2007, as attorney general, he recommended that Indian Point not be relicensed, and he has called for its closure.

In response, Entergy, the company that operates Indian Point, said the East Coast has a different tectonic makeup and is not susceptible to the type of earthquakes and tsunamis experienced in Japan.

"Indian Point is designed to withstand an earthquake greater in size than the area has ever experienced," Entergy said in a statement.