The nuclear power plant located in Monticello, Minnesota, recently admitted to having accidentally spilled 400.000 million liters (about 960 gallons) of radioactive water. It is the equivalent of the contents of one of the XNUMX tanks of radioactive water that the plant Fukushima is preparing to release into the Pacific Ocean.
The news of the "leak" of water contaminated with tritium, a radioactive hydrogen molecule, was initially kept hidden from the general public. And now there is a storm between Xcel Energy, the company responsible for the plant, the local authorities and the population.
Little mistakes
The radioactive water leak was first detected in November. The company and local authorities, while reporting the matter in the official bulletin of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), preferred to keep the information confidential, they say, "in order to investigate the extent of the leak without interference".
Michael Rafferty, spokesperson for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), said to the Associated Press: “We knew about the presence of tritium in a monitoring well. Xcel had not yet identified the source and exact location of the leak.” Now that all the information has been collected, Rafferty explains, it was decided to share it with the public.
Radioactive water, the importance of transparency
Xcel issued a press release explaining that the radioactive water accidentally spilled poses no risk to people's health. In essence, they explain, since tritium is a low-risk radioactive element (also present in foods albeit in small quantities) the level of contamination is within the toxicity limits established by law.
The point is that radioactive leaks in a power plant are always a bad sign. The choice not to immediately disclose this information dramatically worsens the general picture, fueling suspicion rather than trust in the population.
Everyone (the detractors of nuclear power, and even more so the supporters) should demand that companies and local authorities around the world take these things very seriously. Then we feel like blaming the "ox people" for their distrust.
Events like these give reason to those who doubt, not to those who wave only certainties about nuclear power.
