Minnesota power plant leaks 400,000 gallons of radioactive water

A nuclear power plant along the Mississippi River in Monticello, Minnesota, has leaked more than 400,000 gallons of radioactive water due to a broken pipe. NBC’s Maggie Vespa has the details.  AP reported on the details of the radioactive leak that was made public. The article started off with this:

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.

“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. 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.