Temporary shutdown of Monticello nuclear power plant causes fish kill
By WCCO Staff
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MONTICELLO, Minnesota (WCCO) — A Minnesota nuclear power plant says it fixed a radioactive leak, but the process killed hundreds of fish.
The Xcel Energy Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant sits close to the Mississippi River. The utility company started powering it down on Friday, which cooled the surrounding water.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) says the temperature change killed about 230 fish, including bass, channel catfish, carp and sucker fish.
The plant went offline so crews could fix a leak that spilled 400,000 gallons of contaminated water late last year. The temporary fix failed last week, spilling even more of the water.
Monday night, Minnesotans living near the plant had another chance to ask questions during a community meeting.
Last week, Xcel Energy said some of the contamination made it to the groundwater, which flows towards the Mississippi. Still, the company says there’s no threat to the public or environment.
The MPCA released this statement Monday evening about the fish kill:
Xcel Energy notified the state duty officer that a change in water temperature led to a fish kill near its Monticello nuclear power plant. As part of its normal operations, warm water from the Monticello plant enters the river, which the fish get used to. The fish kill is unfortunate but not unexpected given the significant temperature change that can occur when warm water from the plant stops flowing to the river during a shut down in operations. At the time of the report, 230 fish had died including bass, channel catfish, common carp, and one or more species of sucker fish. The fish kill was not caused by tritium.
On Friday, March 24, Xcel Energy began a temporary shutdown of the Monticello plant to address a second leak of water containing tritium into groundwater at the facility. The Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency are monitoring samples taken from groundwater wells and have no evidence that the tritium has reached the Mississippi River or contaminated drinking water sources. The MPCA, MDH, and DNR continue to work together on this response.
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