Holtec International Inc. has announced an eight-year delay in completing the decommissioning of Indian Point Power Plant, adding no heavy demolition activities will occur during 2024. The company also agreed to keep four air monitors nearest to the community operational. 

Those latest announcements came at the Dec. 6 Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board meeting. They come following Gov. Kathy Hochul signing legislation into law back in August restricting the decommissioning of the power plant in Buchanan. The legislation was signed with the primary goal of protecting the communities within New York's Hudson Valley region.

Massive layoffs were also a major focus at the board meeting. Those layoffs come as the massive project of transferring all waste from the plant to dry cask storage has now been completed.

According to the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board, a total of 138 workers will be laid off right after Christmas, on Dec. 29. The layoffs include 97 members of the North Atlantic States Regional Council Of Carpenters. 

Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg, one of the sponsors of the bill signed into law by Gov. Hochul restricting the decommissioning,  discussed ways forward in addressing these layoffs. 

"I do think that we should work collaboratively with Holtec as we move forward to make sure that we can find ways to keep people employed who should be employed because there is, as was said multiple times and certainly publicly, plenty of work and this wasn't part of the critical path to decommissioning," said Assemblywoman Levenberg. 

The next Decommissioning Oversight Board meeting will be on Feb. 29, 2024.