Credit: Nuclear Regulatory Commission / Flickr
Xcel Energy in late November told Minnesota and federal officials about a leak of 400,000 gallons of water contaminated with radioactive tritium at its Monticello nuclear power plant, but it wasn’t until Thursday that the incident and ongoing cleanup effort were made public.
In a statement, Xcel said Thursday that it “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.”
“Ongoing monitoring from over two dozen on-site monitoring wells confirms that the leaked water is fully contained on-site and has not been detected beyond the facility or in any local drinking water,” the company added.
The Monticello plant, adjacent to the Mississippi River, is roughly 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
Asked why it didn’t notify the public sooner, the Minneapolis-based utility giant said: “We understand the importance of quickly informing the communities we serve if a situation poses an […]
Have those officials been immediately terminated, or/and which other measures taken ?
“According toThe Star Tribune: “A high level of tritium in groundwater was reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when first discovered, which published the ‘nonemergency’ report in its public list of nuclear events the next day. The listing said the source of the tritium was being investigated.”
See it was made public, 400,000 gallons of radioactive water released is a “non-emergency”, nothing to see here carry on….The question should be why are not utilities not required to notify local media when these events occur? Because the population’s health concerns may upset the apple cart, and we can’t have that now can we?