The delay in notifying the public about the November leak raised questions about public safety and transparency, but industry experts said Friday there was never a public health threat. They said
“This is something that we struggle with because there is such concern with anything that is nuclear,” said
State officials said that while they knew of the leak in November, they waited to get more information before making a public announcement.
“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,”
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in the environment and is a common by-product of nuclear plant operations. It emits a weak form of beta radiation that does not travel very far and cannot penetrate human skin, according to the
If regulatory officials are sure it didn’t move off site, people shouldn’t have to worry about their safety, he said, adding that companies usually take action when onsite monitoring wells detect elevated levels of contaminants like tritium.
Mitlyng said there's no official requirement for nuclear plants to report all tritium leaks to the
The commission posted a notification about the leak on its website
Beyond that, there was no widespread notification to the public before Thursday.
Rafferty said disclosure requirements fall to the facility, and state agencies would have notified residents immediately had there been an imminent threat to health and the environment.
Rafferty said the
Mitlyng said there is no pathway for the tritium to get into drinking water. The facility has groundwater monitoring wells in concentric circles, and plant employees can track the progress of contaminants by looking at which wells detect higher amounts. There are
The company said the leak came from a pipe between two buildings.
Xcel said it has recovered about 25% of the spilled tritium so far, that recovery efforts will continue and that it will install a permanent solution this spring.
Xcel is considering building above-ground storage tanks for the contaminated water it recovers and is considering options for the treatment, reuse or final disposal of the collected tritium and water. State regulators will review the options the company selects, the state
The regulatory commission said tritium spills happen from time to time at nuclear plants, but they’ve either been limited to plant properties or involved such low offsite levels that they didn’t impact public health.
The
“I think it’s pretty alarming that they did not notify the public right away,” Burma said. “They said it won’t cause any harm, but that’s hard to believe when they waited how long to go public with it.”
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Phillis reported from
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