Washington, DC — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today welcomed the issuance of a final order by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to require that backup power for Indian Point’s emergency notification system be in place by January 30, 2007. The order implements legislation authored by Senator Clinton in July of 2005, and included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was signed into law on August 8th.

“While backup power for Indian Point's sirens can’t happen soon enough, I am pleased that the NRC acted quickly on my legislation and I trust that Entergy will too. The community deserves to know that the emergency sirens will work no matter what and that there are backup systems in place to ensure that they do,” Senator Clinton said.

After the NRC rejected a citizen petition to require back-up power for the Indian Point sirens on May 18, 2005, Senator Clinton wrote a letter to NRC Chairman Diaz on May 26, asking him to reconsider and reverse his decision. On June 8, Senator Clinton filed an amendment to the Nuclear Plant Security Bill to require backup power, during a markup of that bill in the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. She subsequently reached an agreement on legislation with EPW Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK). The legislation directed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to require backup power to be in place for the Indian Point sirens within 18 months of enactment. Senator Clinton then worked with Senator Inhofe to have the legislation included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which passed the Senate in July and was signed into law on August 8, 2005. The final order by the NRC implements Senator Clinton’s legislation.

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