NYS Nuclear Power Plants: Operating Fleet, Indian Point, and New Builds

New York State has three operating nuclear power plants, all sited along the southern shore of Lake Ontario and all owned by Constellation Energy: Nine Mile Point (two reactors), James A. FitzPatrick, and R.E. Ginna. Together their four reactors produce about 3.4 gigawatts, roughly one-fifth of the state’s electricity and more than 40 percent of its carbon-free generation.¹ After closing the Indian Point plant in 2021, New York has reversed course and is now pursuing one of the largest state-level nuclear buildouts in the country, with Governor Kathy Hochul calling for 5 gigawatts of new capacity on top of the existing fleet.

The Four Operating Reactors

All four reactors are licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and run by Constellation.²³⁴

Nine Mile Point, Units 1 and 2

In the Town of Scriba near Oswego, Nine Mile Point is the state’s largest nuclear site. Unit 1 is a 622-megawatt boiling water reactor that has run since 1969; its NRC license expires in August 2029. Unit 2, also a boiling water reactor, came online in 1988, produces about 1,285 megawatts, and is licensed through October 2046.¹ Constellation has filed a letter of intent to seek a subsequent license renewal for Unit 1, with an application projected for early 2026.⁵

James A. FitzPatrick

Also in Scriba, FitzPatrick is an 854-megawatt boiling water reactor that has operated since 1975 and is licensed through October 2034.¹

R.E. Ginna

Ginna sits in the Town of Ontario, east of Rochester. It is a Westinghouse pressurized water reactor producing about 576 megawatts, in service since 1970 and licensed through September 2029.⁶ On June 17, 2026, Constellation filed a subsequent license renewal application asking the NRC for another 20 years of operation, which would carry Ginna from 60 to 80 years of service.⁷

Why the Upstate Fleet Is Still Running

The plants owe their survival in part to a state subsidy. In 2016, as part of the Clean Energy Standard, New York created the Zero Emission Credit program to keep the financially struggling upstate reactors from closing. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority charges wholesale electricity suppliers a per-megawatt-hour fee, then pays the generators monthly. The price is pegged to the social cost of carbon and reduced by revenues the plants receive from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and by wholesale energy prices above a baseline.⁸

A coalition of rival generators sued in 2016, arguing the program was preempted by the Federal Power Act. A federal district court dismissed the case in 2017, the Second Circuit affirmed in 2018, and the Supreme Court declined review.⁸

On January 22, 2026, the Public Service Commission extended the program through 2049 in a version known as ZEC 2.0, administered in two-year tranches. The extension covers all four Constellation reactors and costs ratepayers about $408 million per year, with safeguards that reduce payments if the plants receive other financial support such as federal tax credits. The PSC concluded that the financial certainty was necessary for Constellation to pursue federal license renewals for its aging fleet.⁹

What Happened to Indian Point

For decades, the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, about 35 miles north of Manhattan, was the state’s largest nuclear facility and supplied roughly a quarter of New York City’s electricity. A long campaign against the plant, driven by safety concerns, groundwater tritium leaks, and Hudson River fish impacts, led to a phased shutdown announced in 2017. Reactor 2 closed on April 30, 2020; Reactor 3 followed exactly a year later, taking a combined 2,083 megawatts off the grid.¹⁰¹¹

Natural gas, not renewables, filled the gap. Gas rose from 39 percent of New York’s electricity in 2017 to over 50 percent by 2023, and more than 95 percent of downstate generation came from fossil fuels in 2022. The state produced an estimated 8 million additional metric tons of CO₂ in 2022 compared with a scenario in which Indian Point had stayed open. The median wholesale price on the NYISO grid climbed to $45.39 per megawatt-hour in 2022, an 84 percent increase over the 2017–2023 median, and ratepayers absorbed an estimated $258 million to $304 million in additional costs that year alone. NYISO also flagged heightened risk of rolling blackouts in New York City during severe heat waves.¹¹

Decommissioning and the Hudson Wastewater Fight

Entergy sold Indian Point to Holtec International in May 2021 for decommissioning. Holtec has removed fuel from both reactor vessels and transferred it to dry cask storage on site, and the NRC approved changes in 2023 shrinking the emergency planning zone from 10 miles to the site boundary.¹²

What to do with roughly 45,000 gallons of tritiated wastewater became a legal fight. In August 2023, Governor Hochul signed the “Save the Hudson” act, which passed the Senate 63–0 and the Assembly 100–44 and barred any discharge of radiological material into the river during decommissioning.¹³ Holtec sued in April 2024, arguing the federal Atomic Energy Act gives Washington exclusive authority over radioactive discharges. On September 24, 2025, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas ruled for Holtec, finding that New York had overstepped.¹⁴ Governor Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James said they would appeal.¹⁵ Holtec has said it has no near-term plans to discharge and must give the state at least 30 days’ notice before doing so.

The Plan to Build More

The loss of Indian Point’s baseload capacity to natural gas, combined with rising electricity demand from data centers, semiconductor manufacturing, and building electrification, drove a sharp policy reversal.

NYPA’s 1 Gigawatt Directive

On June 23, 2025, Governor Hochul directed the New York Power Authority to develop and construct at least one gigawatt of advanced nuclear generation in upstate New York.¹⁶ NYPA issued two requests for information in October 2025, and eight upstate communities expressed interest, including Oswego, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence counties along with the City of Dunkirk. Twenty-three development teams responded, including GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Westinghouse, TerraPower, Rolls-Royce SMR, Holtec, and X Energy.¹⁷

NYPA is still evaluating multiple technology pathways, from conventional large-scale reactors to small modular and micro modular designs, and has not selected a specific one.¹⁸ The authority issued a formal request for qualifications in May 2026 and has targeted 2033 to begin construction, committing $40 million to nuclear workforce development.¹⁹

The 8.4 Gigawatt Nuclear Reliability Backbone

In her January 2026 State of the State address, Governor Hochul raised the ambition significantly, calling for 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity on top of the existing 3.4 gigawatts, an 8.4-gigawatt “Nuclear Reliability Backbone.” The stated rationale is projected electricity demand growth of 50 to 90 percent over the next two decades.²⁰ Beyond the 1 gigawatt at NYPA, the governor directed the Public Service Commission to stand up a program for 4 additional gigawatts of advanced nuclear.²¹

The PSC acted on June 11, 2026, formally launching the Nuclear Reliability Backbone proceeding. The commission’s analysis suggests one to two gigawatt-scale plants could be online by 2040, with more deployments between 2040 and 2050. Lead times for large light-water reactors are estimated at 10 to 12 years. Financing tools under consideration include federal Department of Energy loans covering up to 80 percent of deployment costs, state grants or equity participation, cost-overrun guarantees, and federal production tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. The commission is also seeking input on whether projects should be privately owned, state-owned, or structured as public-private partnerships.²²

The day after that order, NYSERDA and the Department of Public Service published the Advanced Nuclear Policy Options Paper, the first piece of a broader Master Plan for Responsible Advanced Nuclear Development expected by the end of 2026.²³

A Possible SMR at Nine Mile Point

Separately from NYPA’s project, Constellation and NYSERDA have submitted a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy to support an NRC early site permit for one or more advanced reactors at Nine Mile Point. Constellation is evaluating small modular reactors at the site, which already has existing nuclear infrastructure and land meeting federal development criteria.²⁴

Opposition in Albany

The plan has drawn pushback. State Senator Kevin Parker, chair of the Senate Energy Committee, introduced S9962A, the NYS Ratepayer Protection Nuclear Moratorium Act, which would impose a 30-month moratorium on state agencies approving or funding new nuclear facilities and set up a 15-member independent task force to study the financial, environmental, and public health implications.²⁵

Supporters point to New York’s own record on nuclear costs. The sponsor memo cites the Shoreham plant on Long Island, which cost $6 billion and closed in 1989 without generating meaningful power, and warns the 5-gigawatt target could reach $100 billion without independent review. Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, the Assembly sponsor, has pointed to the Vogtle expansion in Georgia, which finished $17 billion over budget. Former NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko, supporting the bill, said governments routinely shift the financial risk of nuclear projects onto ratepayers and taxpayers.²⁶

The Sierra Club’s Atlantic Chapter called the expansion a “dangerous dead end” and a “multi-billion dollar” financial risk, citing the $10 billion cleanup cost at the West Valley nuclear waste site and $6.4 billion in cost overruns at Nine Mile Point 2. The group argues the state should accelerate solar, wind, geothermal, and storage instead.²⁷

As of June 2026, the moratorium bill sits in Senate and Assembly committees. Governor Hochul has not backed off, saying: “Nuclear takes years to build. If we don’t start now, then we’re failing to meet this moment.”²⁶

West Valley: A Separate Legacy Site

West Valley in Cattaraugus County is often folded into discussions of New York nuclear, but it is not a power plant. It is a former commercial spent fuel reprocessing facility that closed in 1976 and has been under federal cleanup ever since. The Department of Energy has spent about $3.1 billion on the effort, demolishing 51 of 55 structures and shipping 1.3 million cubic feet of low-level waste off-site. High-level radioactive waste and about 30,000 cubic feet of transuranic waste remain in interim on-site storage because no facility in the country is currently authorized to accept them for permanent disposal, and Congress has yet to act on a 2017 DOE report proposing disposal options.²⁸ Annual federal spending on the site runs roughly $90 million to $98 million.²⁹

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