Is Leaked, Radioactive Tritium in Mississippi River Drinking Water?

By John LaForge

Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear reactor on the Mississippi River has leaked some 829,000 gallons of wastewater contaminated with radioactive tritium into the groundwater on site,1 more than double the 400,000 gallons Xcel first estimated. The company has since replaced two leaking pipes, built an underground retaining wall, and is cleaning up after a second spill and its temporary reactor shutdown. Yet according to WCCO TV, for July 20, 2023, Xcel said a “small amount of leaked water may have reached the Mississippi River.”2

On March 18, 2023, the Associated Press (AP) reported that a representative of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) told them that the tritium-contaminated wastewater from the reactor couldn’t contaminate the water people drink. The AP reporters quoted NRC spokesperson Victoria Mitlyng, writing: “Mitlyng said there is no pathway for the tritium to get into drinking water.”3

In fact, there are two pathways for the tritium leak to get into drinking water. First, the tritium in the 829,000-gallon leak is now in a groundwater plume that can move beyond Xcel’s Monticello site and reach private or public drinking water wells.

Second, the groundwater plume, which moves toward the Mississippi,4 will contaminate the river which supplies drinking water to one million-plus people in the Twin Cities and their suburbs and 38 million people downstream.

Perhaps Mitlyng was misquoted, since the NRC and the AP have both reported that the plume of tritium-contaminated groundwater can move outside Xcel’s boundary. In fact, both agencies have reported that Xcel’s stated purpose in hastily building an underground steel wall between the reactor and the Mississippi is to prevent the radioactive groundwater from entering the river.5

The AP reported March 24, 2023 that Chris Clark, the president of Xcel Energy,
acknowledged that the radioactive pollution can reach the Mississippi. The AP reported: “Even if the tritium reached the river, which Clark assured wouldn’t happen, it would dissipate within a few yards.”6 Clark’s assurance is either a mistake or a deliberate fib, because “dissipate” means to disappear or vanish. However, tritium contamination in water lasts 123 years.

Further, there is no way to remove tritium from water once it’s contaminated — as the 1.5 million tons of tritiated wastewater being pumped into the Pacific Ocean from the three-reactor earthquake/tsunami/meltdown site at Fukushima proves.

Why is Xcel’s tritium in the groundwater and the Great River such a threat to the people and animals that rely on it? As the NRC says, “This is because tritium travels as a form of water through the soil faster than other radionuclides.”7 The city of Minneapolis proudly declares, “Our water comes from the Mississippi River. Roughly 21 billion gallons of water are pumped from the river each year, and 57 million gallons of drinking water delivered every day.”8

We can’t say, “There’s nothing we can do.”

Everyone can comment to the government regarding the risks posed by Monticello’s operations, when Xcel issues (this spring) its draft supplemental environmental impact statement (DSEIS) regarding the firm’s request to extend its license and run the 54-year-old reactor until 2050, when it will turn 80.

The comment period will last four to six weeks and open after the DSEIS is released. Check Nukewatch’s website to learn when the period has opened. Use one of Nukewatch’s sample comments or your own. Plan to make your voice heard in person once the NRC schedules a public hearing on the license extension. nukewatchinfo.org/monticello.

Notes:

[1] Xcel Energy, “Subsequent License Renewal Application Response to Request for Additional Information and Request
for Confirmation of Information – Set 1 Part 2,” p. 6, Dec. 18, 2023, https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML23352A081

and The Monticello Times, “Xcel groundwater recovery enters final phase,” Dec. 21, 2023, https://www.hometownsource.com/monticello_times/xcel-groundwater-recovery-enters-final-phase/article_7e834ce8-9ea3-11ee-8e03-9f36a6b5d962.html

[2] CBS Minnesota, WCCO Staff, “Xcel Energy: Small amount of leaked water may have reached the Mississippi River,”
July 20, 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/xcel-energy-small-amount-of-leaked-water-may-have-reached-
the-mississippi-river/

[3] Associated Press, “Regulators: Nuclear plant leak didn’t require public notice,” by Michael Phillis and Amancia Biraben, March 18, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/xcel-energy-nuclear-leak-tritium-6e522afbb12ad26925c40d833853088d

[4] Doug Wetzstein of the Minn. Pollution Control Agency told WCCO television last March, “The groundwater beneath
the facility … moves in the direction of the Mississippi River.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5c6j7UZZA0&ab_channel=WCCO-CBSMinnesota

[5] Nuclear Engineering International, “Xcel Energy to build underground barrier to contain radioactive water leak at Monticello NPP, August 22, 2023, https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsxcel-energy-to-build-underground-barrier-to-contain-radioactive-water-leak-at-monticello-npp-11090330; Xcel illustration of its wall is at https://www.ci.monticello.mn.us/Blog.aspx?IID=59; WCCO Staff, CBS Minnesota, “Xcel Energy to begin construction on underground barrier at Monticello nuclear plant,” August 18, 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/xcel-energy-to-begin-construction-on-underground-barrier-at-monticello-nuclear-plant/

[6]Associated Press, “Minnesota nuclear plant shuts down for leak; residents worry,” by Trisha Ahmed and Matthew Daly, March 24, 2023, www.apnews.com/article/minnesota-nuclear-plant-leak-6b72b6f9cd2a1141aadd985b68654e04

[7] “NRC List of Leaks and Spills at Operating U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants,” https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML23284A16

[8] www.minneapolismn.gov, Treatment and Delivery Process, “Our water comes from the Mississippi River,” https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/government/departments/public-works/water-treatment-distribution/treat-deliver/