Piece by piece, bolt by bolt, the Indian Point nuclear power plant is being stripped down to its parts, each one a snapshot in time from the plant’s six decades supplying electricity to New York City and Westchester County.

Inside Unit 1’s containment dome, one of three nuclear reactors on the site, workers in hard hats and white protective gear negotiate dimly lit stairways in a site that resembles a rusting old factory to tear apart steam generators and drop them down to a massive dumpster.

The squat, 265-megawatt pressurized water reactor licensed in 1962 shut down after just 12 years when the necessary safety upgrades were deemed too costly. It’s been dormant so long the 400-pound bolts that secured the reactor head rusted shut and stubbornly refused to budge despite weeks of attempt

See Full Page