Minnesota nuclear power plant where 400,000 gallons leaked radioactive water ... trends now
The Minnesota power plant where 400,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked in November 2022 experienced another incident Wednesday and has temporarily shutdown as a result.
Xcel Energy, which made headlines for announcing the first leak just this month, discovered another hundreds of gallons of water containing tritium drained from its Monticello facility - some of which flowed into ground water.
While the company said 'there is no danger to the public,' this is the second incident to plague the plant in less than one year.
The first disaster sparked an outrage among Americans, who were displeased with the silence of the company and regulators.
The Minnesota power plant where 400,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked in November 2022 experienced another incident Wednesday and has temporarily shutdown as a result
Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy–Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, said in a statement regarding the recent leak: 'While the leak continues to pose no risk to the public or the environment, we determined the best course of action is to power down the plant and perform the permanent repairs immediately.
'We are continuing to work with and inform our state, federal, city and county leaders in the process.
Unlike November's incident, the one on Thursday was confirmed to have flowed into groundwater.
The water contained tritium, which is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life about 12 years.
Tritium can enter the body through inhalation, ingestion or absorption through the skin, and increases the risk of cancer if consumed in extremely large quantities, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).
Minnesota Health Commissioner Dan Huff told MPR News: 'While tritium is radioactive, it’s low energy, and so it is not like plutonium. If you were to sit it next to you in a glass, it would not hurt you.
'If you
