New Indian Point Radioactive Water Leak: 8 Million Picocuries Per Liter

Update 2/7: Insider comment trying to straighten me out. My wife says its hopeless. It obviously is a Republican?  

"Tritium can be counted in their high tech radioactive counters pretty fast. Strontium and cobalt takes a lot longer count. It will take a few days to weeks to count the really nasty radioactivity. You got much more than tritium under the plant. Need the name of the system the water came from?

I think this is mis leading.

I think fundamentally A simple rad detector will detect any gamma radiation.  You can do a couple other things to determine if there is beta, alpha or neutron.

But I do not see where it takes more time to count 2 marbles vs 100 marbles, or 5 micro curries vs 5 curries.  The time may be affected by the time it takes you to changing the scale range.

What takes time is determining what isotope is emitting the radiation.  One way is determining  the decay half life.  Obviously, Co60 with a half life of appx 5 to 10 years takes a little time to determine the decay rate.

But, a rad leak is a rad leak.  Higher rad levels are leaking out from the plant.  The leak is causing higher rad levels than the natural rad levels around the plant.  The next concern, what is it, is it Uranium, or plutonium? Is it a toxic chemical?  Or will it linger for years?


If you are speeding in a 30 mph speed zone, does it matter if you are driving a Honda motorcycle, or a Corvette, or a big mf pickup?  (Does it matter sound a lot like 4 Americans in Benghazi are already dead, does it matter, does it matter anymore?)"

Vermont Yankee's highest reading was about seven million. I do have a knack for timing. Bet you this will elevate my status with the NRC. 

Here is the 2.206 submitted two days ago. Do you think its related?

Gets to show you how powerless the governor is. Gov Cuomo looks so weak.

Tritium can be counted in their high tech radioactive counters pretty fast. Strontium and cobalt takes a lot longer count. It will take a few days to weeks to count the really nasty radioactivity. You got much more than tritium under the plant. Need the name of the system the water came from?

Most leaks come from secondary water are laced with tritium. Hydrogen can almost leak through anything, the atoms are so small. There is a filtering process that takes out most of the really bad radioactivity with the secondary water. Greater than 95% of the escaped water based tritium comes from the more benign secondary system. The water that never directly come in contact with the core. You are going to be very sorry if Indian Point had fuel pin leaks... If it is reactor coolant, there is going to be much more radioactivity.

What system did the leaking water come from. This is very important information...      

Feb 04, 2016: Indian Point 2.206: Runaway Main Steam Safety Valve Breakdowns Beginning In 2009  

Radioactive material found below nuclear plant

By Daniel McDonald -

February 7, 2016

BUCHANAN, N.Y. — 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 Saturday 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 percent 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.”

“Tritium in the ground is not in accordance with our standards, but I think people should keep in mind there’s no health or safety consequences,” spokesman Jerry Nappi said. “There is no impact on drinking water on or off site.”

There has been a history of groundwater contamination at Indian Point. A federal oversight agency issued a report after about 100,000 gallons of tritium-tainted water entered the groundwater supply in 2009, and elevated levels of tritium also were found in two monitoring wells at the plant in 2014. Officials said then the contamination likely stemmed from an earlier maintenance shutdown.

An Associated Press investigation in 2009 showed three-quarters of America’s 65 nuclear plant sites have leaked tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen that poses the greatest risk of causing cancer when it ends up in drinking water.