Xcel Energy says it will power down its Monticello nuclear power plant after monitoring equipment on Wednesday detected more radioactive tritium was leaking into groundwater.

After identifying the source of the leak in November, Xcel implemented a short-term solution to capture water from a leaking pipe and reroute it back into the plant for reuse. The fix was focused on preventing any new tritium from reaching groundwater until Xcel could install a replacement pipe in April.

In a statement on Thursday, the utility said the short term fix was “no longer capturing 100 percent of the leaking water. The new leakage — anticipated to be in the hundreds of gallons, a much smaller amount of water than previously leaked — will not materially increase the amount of tritium the company is working to recover and does not pose any risk to health or the environment.”

Xcel has recovered about 32 percent of the tritium released. They say the tritium has not made it into drinking water.

“While the leak continues to pose no risk to the public or the environment, we determined the best course of action is to power down the plant and perform the permanent repairs immediately,” said Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy–Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota in a statement.

The schedule for restarting the plant has not been determined.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Minnesota Department of Health — informed of the leak on Thursday — said they have “no evidence at this point to indicate a current or imminent risk to the public and will continue to monitor groundwater samples. Should an imminent risk arise, we will inform the public promptly.”

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.