Company That Leaked Radioactive Material Will Build Barrier to Keep It Away From Mississippi River

MONTICELLO, Minn. (AP) — The power firm answerable for leaking radioactive material from its nuclear plant in Monticello, Minnesota, in current months has introduced that it’s going to construct an underground metallic barrier to maintain affected groundwater away from the close by Mississippi River.

Xcel Power mentioned building will final a number of weeks and may start between Friday and Monday, in response to a press release posted on the town of Monticello’s web site Thursday.

“Developing the barrier wall is one other step the corporate is taking to try to make sure that the small quantity of tritium nonetheless current within the groundwater stays inside the plant boundaries and will be safely recovered, saved and reused on web site,” Xcel mentioned within the assertion.

Xcel found in November that about 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of water containing tritium — a radioactive isotope of hydrogen — had leaked from a defective pipe. The utility made a short lived repair however realized in March that tons of extra gallons of tritium-laced water had leaked, resulting in a dayslong shutdown to repair the pipe.

The leaks had been contained inside the plant’s boundaries and didn’t enter the river, the corporate has mentioned.

Xcel has completely fastened the supply of the leaks, and the plant has returned to regular operations, in response to the corporate’s website Thursday. About 80% of the leaked tritium has been recovered as of August.

“We’ll proceed recovering impacted groundwater till our monitoring wells point out the groundwater meets the EPA’s Secure Ingesting Water Act requirements,” the corporate’s web site mentioned.

The U.S. Environmental Safety Company has said water with tritium is protected sufficient to drink if the quantity of tritium is lower than 20,000 picocuries per liter.

The tritium degree was about 5 million picocuries per liter in November in groundwater inside the plant’s boundaries, the corporate’s web site mentioned.

As of August, the very best tritium degree was 900,000 picocuries per liter — which isn’t thought-about protected sufficient to drink — inside the plant’s boundaries.

Within the water adjoining to the Mississippi River, the very best tritium degree was 1,000 picocuries per liter, which is protected sufficient to drink.

Leaked tritium nonetheless has not been detected within the river, the corporate’s web site mentioned.

The nuclear plant, which supplies carbon-free power for the area, is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis.

Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on under-covered points. Comply with Trisha Ahmed on Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15

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