Xcel Energy Confirms Oil Leak Reached Mississippi River Near Monticello Nuclear Plant

(KNSI) – Xcel Energy is now confirming that some mineral oil has leaked into the Mississippi River from its nuclear power plant in Monticello.

On Tuesday, Xcel said about 200 gallons of mineral oil had seeped from the cooling equipment at the plant. While Xcel originally reported that personnel had isolated the leak and that the oil had not reached the river, the company on Wednesday confirmed that a small amount had.

According to Xcel, “There’s always a possibility that a small amount of mineral oil seeped past the containment system. Our teams are regularly inspecting the Mississippi River and did not observe any mineral oil on the river until today (Wednesday), when we observed a small amount of mineral oil appearing as a sheen near the shoreline. We are implementing the appropriate cleanup actions where the sheen is present to clean up the small amounts of mineral oil. We are continuing to monitor and are working with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.”

The nuclear plant has been shut down for maintenance since February 20th.

The company said its first indication of a problem came Monday afternoon, when personnel found abnormally low oil levels in some equipment. Xcel said it isolated the leak and reported it to the state the same day.

In 2022, hundreds of thousands of gallons of tritium-tainted water spilled from a broken pipe at the plant. Xcel has since worked to pump out the contaminated water and build an underground containment wall. State agencies say the contaminated water does not pose a risk to human health or the environment.

The Monticello plant provides power to more than 500,000 homes in the region.

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