Nov 21, 2006 8:35 pm US/Eastern
New Indian Point Tests Show Disturbing Results
Entergy Suspends Contract With Teledyne Brown
BUCHANAN, N.Y. (CBS/AP) ―
Government tests indicate that amounts of radioactive material found in ground water under the Indian Point nuclear power plants were seven times higher than reported by the laboratory hired by the complex to test for leaks.
Testing conducted for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state Department of Environmental Conservation revealed that strontium 90 levels from the August samples ranged from 5 to 30 picocuries per liter.
Federal regulations say that the levels of strontium 90, a radioactive chemical linked to bone cancer and leukemia, must be lower than 8 picocuries per liter for water to be considered safe enough to drink.
Nonetheless, the NRC and state health officials have said for more than a year that the public is not in danger because the radioactive isotope is not reaching any sources of drinking water.
When Teledyne Brown Engineering, of Knoxville, Tenn., conducted tests on behalf of Indian Point, the company found only between 2 and 6 picocuries of strontium 90 per liter.
Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns the plant, has suspended the contract with Teledyne until officials can understand the discrepancy in testing.
"We've taken a new round of samples and are sending them to another lab," said Donald Mayer, Indian Point's lead engineer on the radiation leak.
Entergy plans to remove the source of the leak by storing spent fuel into special dry-storage casks at the site that can later be drained and diluted from a spent-fuel pool. The company has also begun to demineralize the water to lower the concentration of strontium and dilute the source of the contamination that is leaking.
Dale Klein, the new chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month ordered an independent review of how it oversees the Indian Point nuclear power plants.
Klein, who was installed in July, ordered NRC staff to develop a plan "because of repeated inquiries about the adequacy of NRC oversight and licensee performance" at the two IP reactors in Buchanan, on the Hudson River 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
