(KNSI) – Xcel Energy says it continues to pump out and filter polluted groundwater at the Monticello nuclear power plant.
The company believes it has collected a majority, about 53%, of the tritium that was released and says the affected pipe has been fully repaired. Xcel says monitoring equipment on-site has confirmed that the leaked water was fully contained without spilling into groundwater reservoirs or the Mississippi River.
The utility says the recovery efforts have gone mostly smoothly outside of a setback on May 21st when as much as 600 gallons of pumped groundwater overflowed from a holding pen.
Xcel says the concentration of tritium is on the decline, down to 1.5 million picocuries per liter for the highest reading. That is still 75 times what the Environmental Protection Agency considers to be safe for drinking water. The monitoring well nearest the spill is at 6,000 picocuries, well below the 20,000 picocurie EPA limit.
The problem occurred late last year but the public was not notified of the issue until this spring.
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