March 17 (UPI) -- Minnesota officials are monitoring a November leak of water contaminated with tritium from a nuclear generation plant, which they said has not left the site or spread into the well water of local homes.
Xcel Energy and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said Thursday that the contaminated water never reached the nearby Mississippi River nor neighborhood drinking water in homes around the power plant in Monticello, Minn.
Xcel Energy first reported the leak to the Minnesota duty officer and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late November 2022 after finding unusual results during routine groundwater monitoring.
The source of the leak was a leaking water pipeline between two buildings at the nuclear plant. Xcel officials said it believes it leaked about 400,000 gallons of the water containing tritium before it was stopped.
"We are working to ensure this cleanup is concluded as thoroughly as possible with minimal or no risk to drinking water supplies," Kirk Koudelka, MPCA assistant commissioner for land and strategic initiatives, said in a statement.
According to Xcel, tritium is a compound that is commonly created in the operation of nuclear power plants that emits low levels of radiation.
"We have taken comprehensive measures to address this situation on-site at the plant," Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy-Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, said in a statement. "While this leak does not pose a risk to the public or the environment, we take this very seriously and are working to safely address the situation.
"We continue to gather and treat all potentially affected water while regularly monitoring nearby groundwater sources."
Clark admitted that the tritium released from the plant was "well above" the 20,000 picocuries per liter limited by the Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water but those levels were reduced as the tritium diluted in groundwater.
"This does not present a public health or drinking water issue," Clark told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, adding that the plant is monitoring two dozen wells regularly.