Elevated levels of radioactive material below a nuclear power plant in NY over the weekend created safety concerns for nearby residents upstate, and caused the state to launch an investigation into the leak, according to officials.
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Entergy Corp., which runs the plant, elaborated on the situation, saying three monitoring wells out of several dozen at Indian Point showed elevated levels of tritium after the leak, but it said the incident poses no threat public health or safety, according to CNN.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH’-moh) said Saturday that water contaminated by tritium leaked into the groundwater at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, 40 miles north of Manhattan. Entergy and Cuomo have been locked in a battle over the state’s nuclear fleet, and in January, the generator filed a lawsuit over a rejected water permit at the Indian Point facility. The contamination has not migrated offsite, and is not expected to pose an immediate threat to public health.
Cuomo’s office described the levels of radioactivity found in the groundwater as “alarming” and said the governor had ordered Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner Basil Seggos and Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to investigate.
“This failure continues to demonstrate that Indian Point can not continue to operate in a manner that is protective of public health and the environment”, he added. While the levels don’t meet company standards, they are more than a thousand times below federally allowed limits and represent “no health or safety effect to the public” Entergy said.
Schumer was told by NRC Chairman Stephen Burns that the leak would not affect drinking water because it takes two months of migration before the water enters the Hudson River. But Paul Gunter, director of the Radioactive Oversight Project for the group Beyond Nuclear, says that distinction is not reassuring.
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The tritium-tainted water reportedly came from a spill during a maintenance exercise.
