FILE - People walk on a trail at the Montissippi County Park near the Xcel Energy Monticello Generating Plant, a nuclear power plant, in Monticello, Minn., on Friday, March 24, 2023. (Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune via AP, File)Groundwater containing low levels of radioactive material may have reached the edge of the Mississippi River, the energy company responsible for the leak from its nuclear power plant in Monticello, Minnesota, announced on Thursday. Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, has not been detected in the river water itself, Xcel Energy said in a statement. The utility made a temporary fix but learned in March that hundreds more gallons of tritium-laced water leaked, leading to a dayslong shutdown to fix the pipe. The nuclear plant is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis.
