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New York State to Investigate Radioactive Groundwater at Indian Point

New York State will investigate high levels of radioactive contamination found in the groundwater at the Indian Point nuclear plant, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Saturday.

The governor said water contaminated with tritium had leaked into the groundwater at the plant, causing “alarming levels” of radioactivity to be found at three out of the 40 monitoring wells on the site.

One of the wells reported a 65,000 percent increase in the water’s level of radioactivity, Mr. Cuomo said, citing a report by Entergy Corporation, which owns the plant.

Mr. Cuomo said the contamination appeared to be limited to the groundwater beneath the plant in Buchanan, N.Y., about 30 miles north of New York City in Westchester County. He nevertheless expressed his alarm, adding, “This latest failure at Indian Point is unacceptable.”

“The facility reports that the contamination has not migrated offsite and as such does not pose an immediate threat to public health,” the governor said in a statement. “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.”

In a statement, Entergy said the elevated tritium levels are “not in accordance with our standards” but that the amount of radioactivity found at Indian Point remained more than a thousand times below federally permissible limits.

“The tritium did not affect any source of drinking water onsite or offsite,” the company said. It called the presence of tritium in groundwater “a well-studied issue” and that the state had found previous instances of contamination to have no ill effect on public health and safety.

Nevertheless, the governor sent a letter on Saturday to Basil Seggos, the acting commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and to Howard Zucker, commissioner of the State Health Department, instructing them to “fully investigate.”

The priority, Mr. Cuomo said, was to determine the extent and duration of the radioactive contamination, what caused it and whether it might affect the environment and public health of nearby communities.

“We need to identify whether this incident could have been avoided by exercising reasonable care,” he wrote.

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