A Minnesota regulator fined Xcel Energy $14,000 for storing tritium contaminated groundwater without a permit at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, the state agency said last week.
The contaminated groundwater came from leaks that began in November 2022 and continued into March 2023. Xcel cleaned up the leaks, blamed on failed plumbing, but got fined for “storing groundwater contaminated with tritium in aboveground storage tanks before obtaining a required permit,” the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency wrote in a press release.
Xcel got the required permit from Minnesota in May, which allowed the company to temporarily store the contaminated water in above-ground tanks until Nov. 1, the state agency said.
Xcel “has since transferred the tritiated water to a more permanent in-ground lined pond and has emptied and dismantled the temporary tanks,” the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said in its release.
Xcel had about 20 above ground storage tanks with a capacity of almost 1.5 million gallons, the Minnesota agency said.
