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Utility admits lag in nuclear leak warning

February 23, 2000

Toxic water flow also acknowledged

The Associated Press

WHITE PLAINS  A Con Edison executive conceded Tuesday that the trust Westchester County residents had in the utility was violated when some local officials were not immediately notified about last weeks radioactive leak at the Indian Point nuclear plant.

Con Edison Vice President Steven Quinn also acknowledged there had recently been a small leak of about one to four gallons of radioactive water per day  too small to notify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The news came under questioning at a meeting in Westchester County, where lawmakers and Con Edison officials reviewed the countys emergency response plan in the Indian Point 2 accident.

Legislator Bill Ryan, who chairs the Westchester Public Safety Committee, said the aftermath of the radioactive steam leak last week demonstrated there were flaws in the notification system.

We agree wholeheartedly with basically everything Westchester County said, Quinn acknowledged. The trust that we had with these local officials appears to have been violated by our inability to communicate with them rapidly.

Con Edison said it called the four county executives in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Rockland. In Westchester, the utility also notified state police at Hawthorne, Peekskill city police and two members of the countys Emergency Management Office.

County executive paged

County Executive Andrew Spano was paged at 7:55 p.m., about 25 minutes after a small amount of radioactive steam was discovered leaking. Deputy County Executive Jay Hashmall said the emergency operations center was staffed by 9:15 p.m.

However, Hashmall said local legislators and officials in the village of Buchanan and the town of Cortlandt were not called. He said that from now on, the county will notify local officials instead of leaving it to the utility.

Hashmall said the radiation did not spread beyond the plant site and there was no danger to the public. William Murphy, director of the Office of Emergency Management, said sirens were not sounded because the emergency was not serious enough to modify public behavior.

Still, some legislators had a reminder for Con Ed.

We must remember, this is old technology and it is time to be concerned with the safety of the people of Westchester and not the profits of Con Edison or a private company, said legislator Thomas Abinanti. LINK Copyright ) 2000, Poughkeepsie Journal.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 23, 2000

Answers

Just got more bottles of KI-potassium iodide- for the family ( www.beprepared.com or see Ki4u.com. You better gets some too)

-- not (gonna@glow.here), February 23, 2000.

Reminds me of an episode I saw on the "Simpsons".

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 25, 2000.