“The cause of the leak still has not been determined, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, and the agency will continue its special investigation until there are more definitive conclusions.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency and the state Department of Environmental Conservation also have verified through off-site water sampling that there is no detectable radiological contamination from tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that has been detected in larger concentrations near leak from Indian Point 2’s spent fuel pool.

“The flow appears to be in the direction of the spent fuel pools,” Sheehan said.

“We saw pretty significant drop-off after it was first identified,” Sheehan said. “Now they’re not seeing any new moisture coming out of there.”

Sheehan said new wells drilled since the leak appeared in late August show the strongest concentrations of tritium near the spent fuel pool, which contains 400,000 gallons of water used to cool spent nuclear fuel rods.

Jim Steets, a spokesman for plant owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast, said the company will continue to investigate the cause and affect of the leak, even to the point of drilling a second group of wells to pinpoint exactly where the plume is underground.

“We want to corral this thing 360 degrees,” Steets said. “The leak has dried up now and we’re getting a better picture of the impact, but we want to be very confident about our findings.”“

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