Here in New York, opponents of the Indian Point nuclear power plant have won a major victory. The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has refused to grant the plant a critical water quality certification needed for the plant’s two reactors to stay open. The state said the power plant’s water-intake system kills nearly a billion aquatic organisms a year and that radioactive material had polluted the Hudson River after leaking into the groundwater. Opponents of the plant said they hope this ruling could lead to the plant’s closing. State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester said, “This is the beginning of the end of this massive destruction of the river.”