Minnesota regulators said Thursday that they are monitoring cleanup efforts by Xcel Energy followingThe Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said in a news release that the leak has not left the facility site or contaminated drinking water sources.
Cooling towers release heat generated by boiling water reactors at Xcel Energy's Nuclear Generating Plant on Oct. 2, 2019, in Monticello, Minnesota.and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources – that the leak had been stopped and had not reached the Mississippi River. "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," MPCA spokesman Michael Rafferty said, according to The Associated Press.
"We understand the importance of quickly informing the communities we serve if a situation poses an immediate threat to health and safety. In this case, there was no such threat," Xcel told the news agency. To date, it has recovered about 25% of the tritium released and will continue recovery over the course of the next year. It is not yet clear what the cause of the leak was, but the company said that it would examine one pipe that did leak in a laboratory to better understand why it happened.