Nuclear Threat To Montauk?

    The Concerned Citizens of Montauk will meet for its annual meeting on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Montauk Fire Department. After a brief business meeting, the folks will sit back for the general meeting, which will include a lecture titled, “Twenty Miles to Millstone: Is Nuclear Power a Threat to Montauk?”

    Appearing on a panel of experts will be Karl Grossman, a journalist who has written extensively on nuclear power, and Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, a Montauk resident.

    The 40-year-old Millstone nuclear facility in Waterford, Conn., is the same distance from Montauk as Montauk is from the Bridgehampton Commons, C.C.O.M. pointed out in a press release, meaning that a problem there could pose a danger to communities across the Sound.

    Panelists will discuss the prospect of evacuating Long Island and the need to reassess reliance on nuclear power. The danger of nuclear power was brought to the fore after a major earthquake and devastating tsunami in Japan earlier this year damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima, Daiichi, power plant, leading to a major nuclear crisis.

    Since then, C.C.O.M. said, other major economies have moved aggressively away from nuclear power, while officials in the United States limited their response to a review of the 104 plants across the country. Earlier this month, federal inspectors cited Millstone for operating at capacities far beyond those permitted.

    The panelists will discuss the fact that despite these findings there has been no reconsideration of recent license extensions permitting the facility’s two reactors to operate for an additional 20 years, prolonging the plant’s intended 40-year life span.