An apparent overflow at a nuclear power plant north of New York City spilled highly radioactive water into an underground monitoring well, but nuclear regulators said the public isn't at risk.
Officials at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, 40 miles north of Manhattan, reported on Friday that water contaminated by tritium leaked into the groundwater under the facility.
The contamination has remained contained to the site, said Democratic Gov Andrew Cuomo, who ordered the state's environmental conservation and health departments to investigate.
"Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not pose a threat," Cuomo said yesterday in a statement.
The leak occurred after a drain overflowed during a maintenance exercise while workers were transferring water, which has high levels of radioactive contamination, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Normally, a sump pump would take the water and filter it into another treatment system, but the pump apparently was out of service, Sheehan said.
After the drain overflowed, the water seeped out of the building into the groundwater.
It was unclear how much water spilled, but samples showed the water had a radioactivity level of more than 8 million picocuries per liter, a 65,000 per cent increase from the average at the plant, Cuomo said.
The levels are the highest regulators have seen at Indian Point, and the normal number is about 12,300 picocuries per liter, Cuomo said.
Contaminated groundwater would likely slowly make its way to the Hudson River, Sheehan said, but research has shown that water usually ends up in the middle of the river and is so diluted that the levels of radioactivity are nearly undetectable.
"We don't believe there's any concern for members of the public," Sheehan said. "First of all, this water's not going anywhere immediately ... And, again, because of the dilution factor, you wouldn't even be able to detect it were you to take a direct sample."
A spokesman for Entergy Corp, the New Orleans-based company that operates Indian Point, said the overflow was "likely the cause of the elevated tritium levels.
