This July 24, 2008 picture reveals the Monticello nuclear energy plant in Monticello, MN. In November 2022, the plant confirmed a 400,000 gallon leak of water containing tritium and reported it to officers. The leak wasn’t recognized to the general public till Thursday.
Karen Bleier/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Karen Bleier/AFP by way of Getty Photos
This July 24, 2008 picture reveals the Monticello nuclear energy plant in Monticello, MN. In November 2022, the plant confirmed a 400,000 gallon leak of water containing tritium and reported it to officers. The leak wasn’t recognized to the general public till Thursday.
Karen Bleier/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Minnesota officers are monitoring the cleanup of a 400,000 gallon leak of contaminated water from a nuclear energy plant within the metropolis of Monticello run by the vitality large Xcel Power. Officers mentioned there isn’t any hazard from the leak.
The leak was detected almost 4 months in the past and reported to state and federal regulators. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Fee posted a discover publicly on the time, however the firm and state businesses didn’t notify most of the people till final week.
“Xcel Power took swift motion to comprise the leak to the plant website, which poses no well being and security threat to the local people or the atmosphere,” the corporate introduced in a press release on Thursday. Ongoing monitoring has confirmed that the leak “is totally contained on-site and has not been detected past the power or in any native consuming water,” the corporate mentioned.
Xcel confirmed the leak of water containing tritium in November 2022 and notified officers the identical day, in accordance with the corporate’s announcement. Officers attributed the leak to a water pipe operating between two buildings on the plant website. The quantity of contaminated water that leaked out is sufficient to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool about 60% full.
Xcel is predicated in Minneapolis, Minn., and operates in eight states across the U.S. Its two nuclear energy crops are each primarily based in Minnesota. Monticello is about 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis and has a inhabitants of about 15,000 folks.
As a result of there was no instant risk to the general public’s well being and security, “we centered on investigating the state of affairs and containing the affected water in live performance with our regulatory businesses,” Xcel spokesperson Lacey Nygard mentioned in an electronic mail to NPR when requested why there was an almost 4 month delay in notifying the general public. “We are actually at a spot the place we will share with the general public not solely what has already been achieved, however what we will do subsequent. This timing permits us to supply essentially the most correct and full understanding of the state of affairs.”
In 2009, Xcel’s identical Monticello plant had a small tritium leak, which Nygard mentioned was smaller in scale than the 2022 leak and got here from a sump somewhat than a pipe.
“Many working nuclear crops have had some stage of tritium leakage in some unspecified time in the future throughout their operations,” Nygard mentioned.
Michael Rafferty, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Air pollution Management Company, instructed NPR the company waited to get extra data earlier than asserting it to the general public.
“Minnesota state businesses are deeply dedicated to our function in defending human well being and the atmosphere and take critically our duty to promptly inform the general public when a state of affairs presents any form of present or imminent threat,” Rafferty mentioned. “The state of affairs at Xcel Power’s Monticello website didn’t — and nonetheless doesn’t — current an imminent risk to residents’ well being.”
Officers with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Fee didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. A spokesperson for the NRC, Victoria Mitlyng, instructed an area information station that the general public’s concern was “very comprehensible,” and emphasised that “the general public in Minnesota, the folks, the group close to the plant, was not and isn’t at risk.”
What’s tritium?
Tritium is a naturally occurring type of hydrogen that emits a weak type of radiation, which might’t journey far in air or penetrate pores and skin, in accordance with the NRC.
Tritium can be a byproduct of manufacturing electrical energy in nuclear energy crops, and the dose of tritium that comes from nuclear energy crops is way decrease than exposures from radiation current within the pure atmosphere, in accordance with the NRC. Xcel mentioned the tritium ranges within the leaked water had been under NRC security thresholds.
“Everyone seems to be uncovered to small quantities of tritium day-after-day, as a result of it happens naturally within the atmosphere and the meals we eat,” in accordance with an NRC truth sheet.
Any radiation publicity can pose some well being threat, together with elevated prevalence of most cancers. The dangers of publicity are linear, which means decrease ranges of radiation pose decrease threat.
Consuming or consuming meals or water with tritium in it’s the commonest means it enters the physique. It may also be absorbed via the pores and skin. About half of it leaves the physique inside 10 days after publicity.
The cleanup will take months
Xcel says it has recovered about 25% of the tritium-contaminated water that leaked, and restoration efforts will proceed over the course of the following yr.
“Whereas this leak doesn’t pose a threat to the general public or the atmosphere, we take this very critically and are working to securely handle the state of affairs,” Chris Clark, president of Xcel Power–Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, mentioned within the firm’s assertion. “We proceed to collect and deal with all doubtlessly affected water whereas recurrently monitoring close by groundwater sources.”
To comprise the leak, the water is being diverted to a remedy system contained in the plant, which prevents water from leaving the plant. Xcel mentioned it additionally inspected all of its piping to make sure this wasn’t additionally taking place elsewhere within the facility.
The Minnesota Air pollution Management Company mentioned Xcel is contemplating constructing above floor storage tanks or putting in a retention pond to retailer the water containing tritium that has been recovered, in addition to contemplating remedy, reuse and disposal choices. Minnesota regulators will evaluate any choices the corporate selects, MPCA mentioned.
“Our prime precedence is defending residents and the atmosphere, and the MPCA is working intently with different state businesses to supervise Xcel Power’s monitoring information and cleanup actions,” mentioned Kirk Koudelka, MPCA assistant commissioner for land and strategic initiatives. “We’re working to make sure this cleanup is concluded as completely as doable with minimal or no threat to consuming water provides.”
