400,000 gallons of radioactive water leak from Minnesota nuclear plant

CBS News ^ | March 17, 2023

[fluorescence]

Minnesota regulators said Thursday they're monitoring the cleanup of a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from Xcel Energy's Monticello nuclear power plant, and the company said there's no danger to the public. The leak was first detected in November of last year.

"Xcel Energy took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment," the Minneapolis-based utility said in a statement.

While Xcel reported the leak of water containing tritium to state and federal authorities in late November, the spill had not been made public before Thursday.

"If at any point there had been concern for the public safety, we would of course, immediately have provided more information," Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy-Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, told CBS Minnesota on Thursday. "But we also wanted to make sure we fully understood what was going on before we started raising any concerns with the public around us."

State officials said they waited to get more information before going public with it.

"We knew there was a presence of tritium in one monitoring well, however Xcel had not yet identified the source of the leak and its location," Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Michael Rafferty said.

"Now that we have all the information about where the leak occurred, how much was released into groundwater, and that contaminated groundwater had moved beyond the original location, we are sharing this information," he said, adding the water remains contained on Xcel's property and poses no immediate public health risk.

"The groundwater beneath the facility, it's been determined that it moves in the direction of the Mississippi River, slowly, but that's the direction that it flows, or moves, underground," Doug Wetzstein ... told CBS Minnesota.

[grey_whiskers]

Your username is quite ironic given the topic.

[metmom]

…. adding the water remains contained on Xcel's property and poses no immediate public health risk.

Sure…… Like we have any reason to trust anything the government or other self-serving entities have to say.

*We investigated ourselves and found no evidence of wrongdoing*.

I’ll bet.

[ronnie raygun]

funny how this week in the news they were discussing the clean abundant energy we get from nuclear as opposed to the green crap they are handing us, Some one was instructed to open the valve and cause an environmental crisis

[Chad C. Mulligan]

That’s about six or seven gasoline tank trucks’ worth, to put it in perspective.

[Tupelo]

I know! I know!
They can truck that water to East Palastine, Ohio. It is probably cleaner than what they have now.

[cgbg]

Yup—the big story is the coverup—always worse than the original issue.

These days every “leader” lies by instinct.

[Robert A Cook PE]

No way to make this look good . Tritium is a short-lived version of hydrogen, so it chemically will react exactly like water. Dilute, low energy source of easily shielded radiation - BUT!!!
Excitement!
Panic!
Radiation!
MUST HAVE SOLAR WASTES GENERATED!
CLEAN ENERGY!

[GOPJ]

That’s about six or seven gasoline tank trucks worth, to put it in perspective.

Thanks for adding perspective - that doesn't seem like such a 'small' spill anymore...

[Chad C. Mulligan]

This is an event that was anticipated by the safety engineers. That’s why they had monitoring wells around the site. And there is an engineering solution that will mitigate the problem.

But getting the Chicken Littles on the Internet to understand this is like trying to explain algebra to adolescent flatworms. *sigh*

[Shady]

Yep, you nailed it.

[RoosterRedux]

Well, at least radioactive water is free from dangerous bacteria.;-)

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Curious how these environmental accidents seem to be happening all of a sudden, train crashes and now nuclear leaks.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Yep. Here come the nuclear “accidents”
Now that coal and gas are in the crosshairs and under attack...time to start Phase 3 and get after the nuke plants. Look for a good number of hydroelectric dams to have “accidents” when Phase 4 gets rolling.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Thanks for adding perspective - that doesn't seem like such a 'small' spill anymore...

Compared to the volume of groundwater under that site, it IS a small spill.

[mad_as_he$$]

“The leak was first detected in November of last year.”

Some one turned it into a story. It’s been leaking for 5 months.

[dkGba]

I no longer believe in coincidences

[jacknhoo]

It’s like the DOJ or Kremlin or Congress investigating themselves. We need a truly independent investigation.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

If all of the workers at Xcel Monticello were vaxxed, then this is just minor collateral damage.

[WellyP]

Since then, it has been pumping groundwater, storing and processing the contaminated water, which contains tritium levels below federal thresholds. With the new GEN IV MSR/IMSR (reactors) that risk is iliminated. www.terrestrialenergy.com