Xcel Energy says "lesson learned" after nuclear plant leak, promises improved communication going forward

St. Paul, Minn. -- The regional president of Xcel Energy on Wednesday promised lawmakers the company would do better job of sharing information with the public going forward, after it waited months to disclose a leak at its nuclear power plant in Monticello.

"One of the pieces of feedback we've received through this and is a real lesson learned for us is that even though this was something that was contained to our site and didn't present a public health risk, people wanted us to be sharing more information sooner," said Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Clark and leaders from the Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency testified before a joint meeting of both the Senate Energy and Environmental Committees. Clark walked through the timeline and the company's response to the leak of 400,000 gallons of water contaminated with radioactive tritium from its Monticello plant in November, which wasn't made public until last month.

He said Xcel Energy notified both of those agencies of the leak the day it realized something was wrong, when it found elevated levels of tritium in a well on site, and the agencies worked with the utility in the months that followed. There was a second leak in March from the temporary repair to the November rupture, which prompted the company to power down the plant.

"So essentially think of having a container to catch water at a leak from a pipe at your house and some of the water is spilling over," Clark told the panel.

Kirk Koudelka, assistant commissioner of MPCA, described a "balancing act" of what information to release and when.

"Presenting too little information with very little detail ends up creating the potential for fear when we're not able to answer questions," Koudelka said. "So what we try to do is find that balance and in March, we believe we'd come to that point and worked with Xcel to jointly share information on March 16."

Still, Clark acknowledged people felt left in the dark and vowed to improve communication with the community going forward.

"We have great support from central Minnesota. We don't want to take that for granted. We want to be a good neighbor," Clark said. "I think we've definitely learned lessons there about working with the communities that have been so supportive of us to have a better process to share information and help people understand what's going on."

Radioactive tritium doesn't penetrate skin, but if ingested in large amounts can increase a person's risk for cancer, said Dan Huff, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health.

But he assured lawmakers the leak is not a danger to the public.

"We do not have a concern for it impacting drinking water, either in St. Paul and Minneapolis or in surrounding private wells that are off site of Xcel property," Huff said.

The plant just reopened March 31, but will power down again on Friday for a scheduled maintenance, which will last about a month.