Cuomo said that the New York State will investigate the radioactive contamination discovered in the groundwater due to a leak in the Indian Point nuclear plant in New York.
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He says the plant’s operator reported “alarming levels” of radioactivity at three monitoring wells, with one well’s radioactivity increasing almost 65,000 percent. Officials say the contamination has remained contained to the site and that there is no risk to the public.
Indian Point, a nuclear power plant located just east of Rockland County across the Hudson River in Buchanan, NY, supplies 30% of the electricity to New York City. Three of forty monitoring wells registered alarming increases. The nuclear power plant, Jaffee added, “cannot continue to operate as it has without a full and through investigation of this incident”.
Indian Point’s parent company Entergy said elevated levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, had been detected in the groundwater at the facility, but that “there is no health or safety effect to the public”.
In a letter to the commissioners, Cuomo said, “We need to identify whether this incident could have been avoided by exercising reasonable care”.
Buchanan Mayor Theresa Knickerbocker said Entergy informed local officials about the elevated levels of tritium on Friday. The levels are the highest regulators have seen at Indian Point, and the normal number is about 12,300 picocuries per liter, Cuomo said.
Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee said in a statement that this is not the “first time Entergy’s operation and maintenance has failed”.
Cuomo said the leak left him “deeply concerned” and he has directed the heads of the state’s health and environmental conservation departments to investigate the matter in-depth.
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In May 2015, a unit at the Indian Point nuclear plant was shut down following a transformer failure and fire, in an incident that sent smoke spewing from the plant.
