Investigating claim corporation can release 45K gallons of radioactive water into Hudson River

In October 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that a federal judge approved a corporation’s plan to release 45,000 gallons of radioactive water into the Hudson River in New York.

One X user wrote: “BREAKING: A federal judge has approved a plan to release 45,000 gallons of radioactive water into the Hudson River.” The user pointed to an article in the U.K. tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail as a source for this information.

The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Reddit (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers searched our site to find more information about the claim.

The claims referred to a ruling by Judge Kenneth M. Karas at the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. On Sept. 24, Karas granted a motion by Holtec International to block a New York state law that prohibited the company from releasing any “radiological substance” into the Hudson River. Holtec International bought the former Indian Point nuclear power plant to decommission it in 2021.

Lawmakers in New York passed the now-voided law in June 2023 after Holtec International announced in April of that year it would release 45,000 gallons of tritiated water — which contains the radioactive isotope tritium — into the Hudson River as part of decommissioning work at Indian Point. Tritium enters water used at nuclear power plants because it is a byproduct of nuclear reactions and makes the water radioactive. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which regulates radioactive water releases from nuclear power plants, considers tritium a “weakly radioactive isotope.” 

Patrick O’Brien, Holtec International’s director of government affairs and communications, said via email on Oct. 3, 2025, that the company was “pleased” with Karas’ ruling but did not have a timeline for resuming discharges of tritiated water from the Indian Point site. It was unclear at the time of this writing whether the New York State Office of the Attorney General’s office would appeal Karas’ decision. O’Brien also said that Holtec International’s tritiated water releases from Indian Point had historically been “1/40^th of what the EPA allows in drinking water for tritium and a fraction of the allowable limit for annual release set forth by the NRC.”

Nuclear power, politics and environment clash 

Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, Westchester County, shut down in April 2021, after operating since 1962, due to political opposition and falling natural gas prices. According to a New York Times report, the plant supplied 25% of New York City’s power when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced it would shut down in 2017. 

Holtec International then bought the plant to decommission it in May 2021, a process that involved safely dismantling and disposing of fuel, radioactive equipment and components, according to the company’s website. The New York Department of Public Services also created the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board (DOB) in 2021. The board held monthly meetings to coordinate oversight among state and local regulators and keep the public informed about the decommissioning process.

Work proceeded until April 2023, when Holtec International advised the DOB that it planned to release up to 45,000 gallons of treated water from one of Indian Point’s spent fuel pools, according to a local report and a transcript of a DOB meeting later that month. Though Holtec International said it had treated the water it released to make it safe, it would still contain tritium.

Nuclear power plants use water throughout the power production process. This water can contain the radioactive isotope tritium that nuclear reactors produce as a byproduct and that binds with water. Tritium cannot be easily removed from water, so nuclear power plants usually release tritiated water under “controlled, monitored” conditions that the NRC regulates.

At the time, officials, locals and activists protested the release due to fears about water pollution of the Hudson River and human health, despite the DOB’s acknowledgement that Holtec International had permission to carry out the release.

Following what Holtec International called “public questions,” the company wrote in a letter to DOB Chair Tom Congdon on April 13, 2023, that it decided it would not go forward with the 45,000 gallon discharge at the time.

Despite Holtec International halting plans for immediate release, it was clear that mounting opposition would pose a problem to work at the Indian Point site.

Richard Burroni, then the site vice president of Indian Point Energy Center, told an April 27, 2023, meeting of the DOB that “approximately 1.3 to 1.5 million gallons remain from the spent fuel pools, refueling, water storage tank, and the reactor cavity, the steam generators, waste collection tanks, hold-up tanks.” Holtec International, according to Burroni, planned to process and discharge this water with the 45,000 gallons representing a small part of this process.

Tritiated water could become roadblock in Indian Point decommissioning

Holtec International’s pause on discharging filtered water from Indian Point would turn out to last for years. In June 2023, two months after Holtec announced it would release the original 45,000 gallons of tritiated water, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law known as the “Save the Hudson” bill that prohibited the release of any “radiological substance” into the River Hudson “in connection with the decommissioning of a nuclear power plant.”

Holtec International sued the state of New York and it was this legislation that Karas voided in his Sept. 24, 2025 ruling. According to Karas, federal legislation preempted the “Save the Hudson” bill. Specifically, Karas found that the “Save the Hudson” bill tread on “a core activity described in 42 U.S.C. § 2021(c),” a law that said federal government had the ultimate “authority and responsibility” in operating nuclear power plants. Karas also found that the “Save the Hudson Bill” had a “direct and substantial effect” on Holtec International’s decision-making in building or operating a nuclear power plant — something that federal law already regulated. According to an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling, state legislation could be preempted if it had this “direct and substantial effect” on federal law.

In voiding the legislation, Karas returned regulation authority over Holtec International’s wastewater discharges at Indian Point to the NRC, whose standards for wastewater release Holtec International argued it had been following throughout its decommissioning process.

Both in 2023 and during its lawsuit against the state of New York, Holtec International argued that releasing the tritiated water — a practice that, according to court documents, had also taken place while the plant was operational — was a safe way to dispose of it. Other suggestions, such as storing it on site, would only push the problem down the road, Frank Spagnuolo, the Holtec International site vice president for Indian Point, told The Journal News in 2025. 

Though Holtec International would technically be allowed to proceed with its 2023 plans to release tritiated water after the September 2025 decision, Riverkeeper, a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River that had long opposed Holtec International’s plans, remained opposed.

In 2023, Riverkeeper wrote in a news release objecting to Holtec International’s plans that tritium was “linked to cancer, and children and pregnant women are most vulnerable.” While an NRC FAQ about tritium did acknowledge that “exposure to very small amounts of ionizing radiation is thought to minimally increase the risk of developing cancer,” the NRC also said tritium was “one of the least dangerous radionuclides.”

Riverkeeper President Tracy Brown said in a 2025 statement, “Holtec’s plan to release millions of gallons of tritiated wastewater into the Hudson River will depress interest in tourism and recreation in the Hudson Valley.” This argument also featured in debates of the “Save the Hudson” bill. According to Karas’ ruling, lawmakers argued that regardless of the actual danger of tritium, “the psychological impact on the public knowing that there’s been radiological discharge into the Hudson would dampen tourism.” 

Holtec International told Snopes it did not have a timeline for when it might resume releases of tritiated water. Regardless, Spagnuolo told The Journal News in August there must be a solution in order for decommissioning work at Indian Point to continue long-term. 

According to Riverkeeper and court documents, New York State and Holtec had a court-mandated conference scheduled for Oct. 9, 2025, where the parties would discuss how to discharge the tritiated water at the site.

Sources