At the least 400,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked from a Minnesota nuclear power plant in November — but officials only publicly revealed the spill on Thursday.
Minnesota regulators shared the disconcerting development on Thursday and said they’ve been monitoring the cleanup from Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear plant.
While the energy company reported the leak of water containing tritium to state and federal authorities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last fall, state officials said they waited to inform the general public until that they had more information.
The four-month delay in announcing the leak to the general public sparked an alarm over public safety and transparency. Nonetheless, industry experts on Friday said there was never a public health threat because the radioactive water never reached a threshold that might have required public notification.
“That is something that we struggle with because there may be such concern with anything that’s nuclear,” said Victoria Mitlyng, a spokesperson with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “The priority may be very, very comprehensible. That’s the reason I need to make extra clear the proven fact that the general public in Minnesota, the people, the community near the plant, was not and shouldn’t be at risk.”
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Michael Rafferty said Thursday that officials knew that considered one of the plant’s monitoring wells contained tritium in November but “Xcel had not yet identified the source of the leak and its location.
“Now that we’ve all the knowledge about where the leak occurred, how much was released into groundwater and that contaminated groundwater had moved beyond the unique location, we’re sharing this information,” Rafferty said.
Xcel said the leak got here from a pipe between two buildings.
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that happens naturally within the environment and is a standard by-product of nuclear plant operations. It emits a weak type of beta radiation that doesn’t travel very far and can’t penetrate human skin, in response to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The chemical only poses a health risk to individuals who consumed a considerable amount of tritium, in response to Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists. The chance is contained if the plume stays on the corporate’s site, which Xcel Energy and Minnesota officials said is the case.
Lyman said that if officials are certain that it didn’t leave the confines of the powerplant, people shouldn’t be concerned about their health or safety.
“Xcel Energy took swift motion to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the area people or the environment,” the Minneapolis-based utility said in an announcement.
Mitlyng said nuclear plants usually are not required to report all tritium leaks to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, nonetheless Xcel had agreed to report certain leaks to the state, who, in turn, shares it with the commission.
On November 23, the commission posted a notification concerning the leak on its website, which it classified as a nonemergency and said was under investigation. No other notification was ever given to the general public until Thursday.
There isn’t a way for the tritium to get into the drinking water, Mitlyng said. The powerplanthas groundwater monitoring wells and plant employees recurrently track the progress of contaminants by which wells detect higher amounts.
Xcel said it has recovered about 25% of the spilled tritium to date, as Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors are on site too, monitoring the response.
The corporate said it plans to put in a everlasting solution this spring.
With Post wires