Officials in Minnesota are monitoring the cleanup of a massive spill of radioactive water from a nuclear power plant just outside Minneapolis.
About 1.5 million litres (400,000 gallons) of nuclear wastewater leaked from the plant back in late November, but the incident wasn’t made public until Thursday.
Xcel Energy, the company that operates the affected nuclear power plant, promises that the spill poses no risk to public safety, as did the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Xcel reported the leak at its Monticello power plant to state and federal authorities on Nov. 22, the day after the spill was confirmed.
The contaminated water contains tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in the environment and is a common by-product of nuclear plant operations, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
3:23 Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in ‘precarious’ situation: IAEA chief Grossi.
Japan is preparing to release a massive amount of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea from the triple reactor meltdowns 12 years ago at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. »