The Monticello Nuclear Plant Leak Cover-up Keeps on Going

Nuclear plants routinely cover-up ongoing explosions and potential future explosions ("Nuclear Power Plant Explosions Keep on Coming - The Monticello Nuclear Plant Joins the List of Exploding Nuclear Plants", click here). These explosions can be stopped if we recognize these dangers and act to stop explosions!

Monticello Nuclear Power Plant
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Radiation Dangers

The Monticello plant claims that there is no risk at all.

'State agencies have no evidence at this point to indicate a current or imminent risk to the public and will continue to monitor groundwater samples ("Statement on Xcel Energy shutdown of Monticello nuclear plant", click here).'

'The NRC agrees with national and international radiation protection regulatory agencies that any exposure to radiation could pose some health risk. This risk increases with exposure in a linear, no-threshold manner. Lower levels of radiation therefore have lower risks. The health risks include increased occurrence of cancer. Since it is assumed that any exposure to radiation could pose some health risk, it makes sense to keep radiation doses as low as reasonably achievable-known as ALARA. The NRC's radiation dose limits and ALARA requirements minimize the health risk and ensure that no individual exceeds federal health and safety standards.'

In other words, there is always a cancer risk when exposed to radiation sources such as tritiated water. We do not know how to quantify that cancer risk, since cancer and cancer deaths are still so poorly understood. This lack of scientific understanding is not a justification for claiming that we are safe from tritiated water. Even so, some insights on tritium from the NRC are warranted.

• 'Tritium is present naturally in the environment and the radiation produced by natural tritium is identical to the radiation produced by tritium from nuclear power plants.
• The tritium dose from nuclear power plants is much lower than the exposures attributable to natural background radiation and medical administrations.

• Humans receive approximately 50 percent of their annual radiation dose from natural background radiation, 48 percent from medical procedures (e.g., x-rays), and 2 percent from consumer products. Doses from tritium and nuclear power plant releases account for less than 0.1 percent of the total background dose (NCRP, 2009). As an example, drinking water for a year from a well with 1,600 picocuries per liter of tritium (comparable to levels identified in a drinking water well after a significant tritiated water spill at a nuclear facility) would lead to a radiation dose (using EPA assumptions) of 0.3 millirem (mrem). That dose is:

  • at least 2,000 to 5,000 times lower than the dose from a medical procedure involving a full-body CT scan (e.g., 500 to 1,500 mrem from a CT scan)
  • 1,000 times lower than the approximate 300 mrem dose from natural background radiation
  • 50 times lower than the dose from natural radioactivity (potassium) in your body (e.g., 15 mrem from potassium)
  • 12 times lower than the dose from a round-trip cross-country airplane flight (e.g., 4 mrem from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles and back).'

Initially, when the release was first detected, radioactivity was measured at 5 million picocuries per liter in the groundwater. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's limit for tritium in drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter [4 mrem per year] ("What we know about the Monticello nuclear plant tritium leak", click here; "Xcel Energy Monticello Power Plant Tritium Leak", click here.

At present, there is no recognized danger from this particular tritium leak, but the facts suggest that concern is certainly warranted. Tritium is reaching the Mississippi. What we are being told is certainly suspicious.

The Initial Monticello Power Plant Tritium Leak

In March of 2023, a 2022 leak breached the Press when another leak occurred at Monticello. At that time, the problem was downplayed since the leak had not reached the Mississippi River ("Radioactive water leaks at Minn. nuclear plant for 2nd time", click here). Authorities were informed, but local residents were not informed.

"Ongoing monitoring from over two dozen on-site monitoring wells confirms that the leaked water is fully contained on-site and has not been detected beyond the facility or in any local drinking water," the company added.

The Monticello plant, adjacent to the Mississippi River, is roughly 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Asked why it didn't notify the public sooner, the Minneapolis-based utility giant said: "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."

'Excel wasn't the only entity with knowledge of the situation. The company said it alerted the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and state authorities on November 22, the day the leak was confirmed ("Nuclear Plant, Minnesota Officials Hid 400,000-Gallon Leak of Radioactive Water for Months", click here ). Also, state agencies [had] no evidence at this point to indicate a current or imminent risk to the public and will continue to monitor groundwater samples ("Statement on Xcel Energy shutdown of Monticello nuclear plant", click here ).

A plume of radioactive water that has lingered under Xcel Energy's nuclear plant in Monticello may have seeped into the Mississippi River, the utility said Thursday but the amount is so low, it hasn't been detected in the river.

Another Leak and the Public is Informed

However, a July statement changed this opinion completely.

In a statement Thursday, Xcel said that tritium a mildly radioactive form of hydrogen had been detected in low levels in a monitoring well 30 feet from the edge of the Mississippi. The Environmental Protection Agency's health limit for tritium in drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter; the sample taken from the well along the river showed 1,000 picocuries, according to Xcel.

State health and environmental regulators said in their own statement that no tritium had shown up in river testing just downstream of the Monticello plant.

The situation "does not present a threat to public health, and there are no immediate impacts to the safety of drinking water or private wells," Andrea Cournoyer, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Pollution Agency, wrote in an email ("Leaked radioactive water may have reached Mississippi River, state says no danger to public", click here).

A Radiation Risk Cover-up

The potential radiation danger is increasing over time. First, the radiation is contained and wells are not affected, and there is no danger. Then, radiation has been detected in a well, and the radioactive plume is nearly in the Mississippi. Now, Monticello is planning to build an underground wall ("Company that leaked radioactive material will build barrier to keep it away from Mississippi River", click here). Even if the immediate radiation dangers are controlled, nuclear plant explosions should be understood.

I am very concerned by the fact that small uncontrolled explosions damage nuclear power plants. If the nuclear industry refuses to address such explosions, how can the dangers of such small explosions possibly be understood.

What Needs to be Done to Thwart Explosion Cover-ups?

NRC procedures to control explosions are obviously failing. To shore up these procedures and stop small explosions, requirements should be put in place to install high-frequency pressure transducers in reactor systems to measure any explosions or water hammers that occur in nuclear power plants. In the absence of such reliable information , any nearby seismometers should be used during the Monticello leak investigation. Seismometers. measure shock waves, and may have measured explosion detonation waves during Monticello operations - prior to the recent piping leaks.

We should not allow the NRC and the nuclear industry to cover-up one more set of explosions in a nuclear power plant!