Fears for Minnesota town where nuclear power plant leaked 400,000 gallons of ... trends now
A small town in Minnesota, home to around 14,564 people, has experienced two major radioactive water leaks from a nearby nuclear power plant months apart.
Xcel Energy spilled 400,000 gallons of toxic material in November - the public was made aware just this month - and the second leaked hundreds of gallons last week.
At the time of the most recent incident, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found at least 230 fish had died in the Mississippi River adjacent to the plant.
The agency and company claim 'the fish kill was not caused by tritium,' a radioactive isotope, but was due to a change in water temperature.
The plant temporarily closed on Saturday to fix the latest leak and stopped pumping warm water into the river, dramatically changing temperatures that 'the fish get used to.'
'The fish kill is unfortunate but not unexpected given the significant temperature change that can occur when warm water from the plant stops flowing to the river during a shutdown in operation,' the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said Monday.
At the time of the most recent incident, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found at least 230 fish had died in the Mississippi River adjacent to the plant
DailyMail.com has contacted Xcel Energy and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Xcel Energy is set to restart operations 'next week' but will temporarily close in mid-April for an annual maintenance project.
Xcel's Theo Keith said more than 30 percent of the tritium had been recovered from groundwater, and the clean-up process will continue over the next year
Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy–Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, said Thursday 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
