William J. Kemble reports in the Daily Freeman that Holtec International now wants to release radioactive water from the spent fuel pools at the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant into the Hudson River as soon as May 5. Holtec Vice President Richard Burroni, in a letter to the Indian Point Decommissioning Board, wrote, “Releases are scheduled to be completed in three batches of 18,000 gallons each and will be limited to 45,000 gallons in total for this exercise.... Following this release there will be approximately 265,000 gallons remaining in the Unit 2 Spent Fuel Pool. Currently, we plan to begin the total dewatering process of the Unit 2 Spent Fuel Pool in the August/September time frame.” Thomas Staudter, a spokesperson for state Sen. Peter Harckham, said, “We know that prior to this point that dumping the radioactive wastewater was occurring.... but now there’s a tremendous amount of it stored onsite and Holtec is just trying to get rid of it as fast as it can. There is some concern with just how dirty this water is.” Environmentalists have protested the release of radioactive water in the Hudson River, as have local officials such as Rhinebeck village Mayor Gary Bassett, who said, “As stewards of the Hudson River … we are concerned about any pollution into the river.... Holtec’s reckless decision to rush its plan to dump tritium as early as May should be stopped.” Environmental activist group Riverkeeper President Tracy Brown said, “We were hoping to work in good faith with Holtec to find an appropriate solution for disposal of the tritiated water but it seems their hurry to make profits take precedence over the people and health of the river.” Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.