14 DAY TRIAL // Over the weekend, the Indian Point Energy Center, a nuclear plant located merely 38 miles (about 61 kilometers) north of New York City, US, experienced both an explosion and a fire.
The somewhat good news is the events did not affect nuclear reactors and so did not translate into a release of radiation. They did, however, damage a transformer used to step off power produced by the plant before feeding it into the grid.
In a statement, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo details that the damaged transformer caught fire on Saturday, around 6 p.m. local time. The flames were put out but soon enough reignited, and so the fire had to be extinguished a second time.
“The fire was started, they believed the fire had been put out; the heat from the transformer actually reignited, so the transformer went on fire a second time, and it had to be put out a second time,” he says.
Following these mishaps, crews pulled the plug on one of the nuclear plant's reactors, just as a precaution. For now, it is unclear what caused the transformer to explode and burst into flames.
The events polluted the nearby Hudson River
The Indian Point Energy Center nuclear plant is located on the east bank of the Hudson River. In the aftermath of the fire and the explosion that hit the faulty transformer, the facility started leaking oil. In a matter of hours, the fuel made it all the way to the Hudson River.
As explained by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the transformer was filled with oil at the time when the fire and the explosion happened. Having ruptured, the transformer spilled part of the fuel.
For a while, the oil was captured by a holding tank. However, the tank eventually overflowed and the fuel ended up into the drain system under the nuclear plant. From here, it was a short and smooth ride to the waters of the nearby Hudson River, the Governor goes on to detail.
Just as the cause of the fire and the explosion are still unknown, so are authorities unable to say how much oil reached the Hudson River. An investigation is ongoing and more information should soon become available.
“There is no doubt that oil was discharged into the Hudson River. Exactly how much, we don't know. That will be part of an ongoing investigation,” says Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Efforts are now underway to contain the spill and recover as much of the oil as possible. Word has it that it will take cleanup crews a few days to collect the leaked fuel with the help of special absorbents.