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Agency Sees Little Risk From a Leak at Indian Point
By Matthew L. Wald
The New York Times

Saturday, March 18, 2006

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report released yesterday that the risk from the tritium-contaminated water leaking from the Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor is so small that it is unlikely to affect the health of plant workers or the public.

The leak was discovered last fall next to the spent-fuel pool for Indian Point 2, which is in Westchester County, as workers dug a new foundation for a crane that will take fuel out of the pool for storage in dry casks.

Water in the pool is contaminated with tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen that is incorporated into the water just as normal hydrogen is. Several weeks ago, samples from a new monitoring well found that the tritium has come closer to the Hudson River than previously believed, although the presumption since the leak's discovery was that the tritium would eventually reach the river.

In its report, the commission said it had "not found any condition that indicates that occupational or public health and safety have been, or likely will be, affected by the current onsite groundwater contamination."

The commission said it had reviewed, and did not dispute, an estimate by the plant owner, Entergy, that the largest direct exposure that a member of the public could receive from the leaking tritium was less than one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of the maximum that the plant is allowed to cause by leaking liquids. The figure refers only to the leak, and not from the routine, planned releases of slightly radioactive liquids into the Hudson River. Those are far larger than the amount being leaked, but still well below legal limits, plant operators say.

The dose would be minuscule compared to background doses from natural sources, according to radiation experts.

The report also noted that New York State had found a second radioactive material, strontium-90, in the water, but that the commission's own tests had not; it said that further tests were pending.

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