Cuomo Calls For Further Investigation of Indian Point Radioactive Water Leak

Officials at Indian Point in Buchanan reported on Friday that water contaminated by tritium leaked into the groundwater under the facility.

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that the leak occurred after a drain overflowed during maintenance.

Regulators continue to say that the public is not at risk.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last week that samples showed the water had a radioactivity level of more than 8 million picocuries per liter, a 65,000 percent increase from average.

Now, Cuomo says that the level of radioactive tritium-contaminated water has increased by 80 percent since last week’s initial report.

Today, I have further directed that the three agencies integrate their investigations to thoroughly explore whether the operational problems that are suspected to have caused the uptick in unexpected outages of the plant may also be causing the leak of radioactive water into the environment. Representatives from the Department of Health, Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Public Service will be onsite as part of these investigations.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman says that they are sending a radiation specialist to further investigate on Thursday.