Officials in Minnesota are monitoring the cleanup of a massive spill of radioactive water from a nuclear power plant just outside Minneapolis. About 1

Nuclear power plant leaked 1.5M litres of radioactive water in Minnesota

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2023-03-18 16:00:05

Officials in Minnesota are monitoring the cleanup of a massive spill of radioactive water from a nuclear power plant just outside Minneapolis. About 1.5 million litres (400,000 gallons) of nuclear wastewater leaked from the plant back in late November, but the incident wasn’t made public until Thursday.

Xcel Energy, the company that operates the affected nuclear power plant, promises that the spill poses no risk to public safety, as did the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

“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.

Xcel reported the leak at its Monticello power plant to state and federal authorities on Nov. 22, the day after the spill was confirmed. The contaminated water contains tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in the environment and is a common by-product of nuclear plant operations, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The leak was sprung from a pipe that ran between two buildings in the power plant complex, which is 55 kilometres northwest of Minneapolis and about 600 kilometres south of Thunder Bay. State officials said they waited until more information could be gathered before making the spill public.