Cuomo’s statement says the company operating the site reports that there was no radioactivity released from the reactor Unit 2.
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Control room operators safely shut down Indian Point’s unit 2 power plant around 5:30 p.m. today after they observed indication of a power loss to several control rods.
One of the nuclear reactors downstate, just north of New York City had to be shut down Saturday night.
The company said it’s not yet clear what caused the power problem.
“I have directed the Department of Public Service to investigate and monitor the situation and a team is now en route to Indian Point to begin its work”, Cuomo said in the statement.
Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission representatives didn’t immediately responded to a request for comment on the shutdown.
The plant has experienced a number of unplanned shutdowns this year. In January, workers shut down the plant because of a failure in the company’s water-system alarm. The original 40-year license for Indian Point Unit 2 expired in September 2013 and the license for Unit 3 is set to expire Sunday. In May, a fire broke out in the plant, which released around 3,000 gallons of fluid into the river, and caused unit 3 of the plant to close down for 16 days.
Unplanned accidents like those on Saturday can highly pressurize Entergy Corporation’s Indian Point plant, which is already struggling with problems at its Fitzpatrick nuclear power plant in Oswego County.
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The recent shutdown came about two hours before a power outage darkened a stretch of New York’s Hudson Valley and nearby Pennsylvania, about 45 miles away from Indian Point.
