Nuclear power reactor near New York city taken offline after leak

One of two reactor units at a nuclear power plant near New York City was taken offline for the second time in three months after a leakage was detected in a pipe that pumped water into the facility.

Reactor Unit 2 at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, NY, was shut down on Thursday following a malfunction. According to officials, the leak was found in a non-radioactive part of the plant.

The shutdown comes only a week after the reactor had been brought online to allow maintenance workers to weld the pipe, which carried water from the nearby Hudson River to the plant.

"There is no ongoing leak and there was no challenge to safety," Indian Point's owner, Entergy, said.

According to plant officials, workers of New York utility company Consolidated Edison, which formerly owned and operated Unit 2, would also test a breaker while the reactor was offline.

The leak, at about one drop of water every five second, was described by officials as. 

In the earlier shutdown in March, inspectors called for taking the unit offline after finding nearly 300 damaged or cracked bolts during a "refueling outage" - a process that occurred once every two years. That closure stretched over three months, and the reactor went back online on 16 June.

''The unexpected shutdown of the reactor at Indian Point 2 because of the weld leak is just the latest example of the repeated and continuing problems at the plant,'' governor Andrew Cuomo (Democrat -New York) said in a statement.

Cuomo had on several occasions called for the shutdown of the 43-year-old nuclear plant, located just 50 miles from densely populated New York City.

''In the last year alone, there has been unprecedented degradation of Indian Point Unit 2 baffle-former bolts, groundwater contamination, and increased Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) oversight at Unit 3 due to numerous unplanned shutdowns,'' Cuomo added.

''This is yet another sign that the aging and wearing away of important components at the facility are having a direct and unacceptable impact on safety, and is further proof that the plant is not a reliable generation resource.''