Star Tribune
Xcel fined $14K over unpermitted storage of radioactive water at Minnesota nuclear plant
Xcel Energy has been fined $14,000 for storing radioactive water without a permit in the aftermath of a spill last year at its Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant.
The plant, about a 30-minute drive northwest of the Twin Cities, sprung a leak of tritium-tainted water in late 2022, when a broken pipe allowed some 400,000 gallons to seep out. The utility and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency didn’t reveal the leak to the public until the following March, drawing public criticism and a promise from state officials to be more transparent.
According to an MPCA press release on Thursday, the agency fined Xcel for its use of temporary aboveground storage tanks to hold the tritiated water. Xcel broke state regulations by holding more than a million gallons of the water in the tanks without first seeking a permit.
In addition to paying the fine, “Xcel Energy was required to immediately obtain the permit before continuing its response and cleanup. The MPCA issued the appropriate permit in May 2023, requiring the use of temporary tanks to end by Nov. 1,” the release said.
Stephen Mikkelson, a spokesman for MPCA, said the agency’s investigation started after Xcel got the needed permit in May, and closed last month. He wrote in an email that the agency “communicates about enforcement actions after the entire enforcement process has concluded,” and the entity it is investigating has paid a fine, made improvements, or done both.
Kevin Coss, a spokesman for Xcel, did not immediately provide a comment.
Tritium is a mildly radioactive isotope of hydrogen that it a common byproduct at nuclear plants. It can only harm people if ingested in significant amounts.
The Monticello plant is located on the banks of the Mississippi River, upstream of the point where the city of Minneapolis collects its source of drinking water. State health officials said that even if the tritiated water did reach the river, it would be so diluted that it would not pose a threat downstream.
Dealing with the leak presented a months-long challenge as Xcel pumped up the tritiated groundwater and tried multiple strategies to stop the plume from reaching the river. Its temporary patch on the original leaky pipe failed at one point, and prompted the plant to shut down, so it could install a more permanent fix.
Xcel also said in July that some of the tritiated water that remained underground had possibly reached the Mississippi, as it showed up in a monitoring well next to the river. But the tritium was detected in levels far below the Environmental Protection Agency’s health limit for the isotope in drinking water.
The MPCA’s press release said that Xcel is no longer holding the tritiated water in temporary tanks, and has built a more permanent lined pond for storage.
Check back for more on this breaking story.
Star Tribune
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on the campaign trial, gives a pep talk to the Mankato West High School Scarlets, a team he once coached.
MANKATO – The football players in their pads jogged out to face their rivals Friday night as Gov. Tim Walz, back home briefly as he campaigns across the country as vice presidential nominee, cheered them on.
“Don’t forget to have fun, enjoy,” Walz told players on the football team at Mankato West High School, where he worked as a geography teacher and assistant football coach before launching a political career that carried him to the Democratic Party’s national ticket.
Since choosing Walz as her running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has touted his background as a football coach, hunter and gun owner, as Democrats reach out to Midwestern voters and look for inroads with men.
Walz’s stop in Mankato is one of a series of media stops in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the governor is talking high school football and hunting.
“This is the best of America,” Walz told reporters after greeting the players of Mankato West ahead of their rivalry game with Mankato East. He said he would visit his old classroom, before heading to watch the game.
A quarter center ago, Walz was the assistant defensive football coach for the 1999 Mankato West football team that won the state championship. That year’s crosstown rivalry game was a spark for Mankato West as it headed toward its state championship, said John Considine, a Mankato West alum and right tackle on that 1999 Class 4A championship team.
“It’s good to have him back,” Considine said Friday.
Local Republicans called Walz’s appearance a stunt. “They’re getting desperate to get the word out,” said Yvonne Simon, chair of the Blue Earth County GOP, adding she’s doesn’t think the governor’s “coach” branding is catching on.
“There’s a fair amount of stuff we’ve digested over the years,” Kerfoot told the Star Tribune at the time of the sale. “It’ll take a while to pick all of it out of me.”
In recent years, he and Sue have spent summers in Minnesota and then traveled back to Missouri to be close to family for the rest of the year.
Visitors love to drop in and talk about Justine Kerfoot or Bruce Kerfoot or the years they spent working at the lodge, Fredrikson said. He’s found that Bruce’s energy seemingly matched that of his mother, who died in 2001 when she was 94.
“He was one of those people that was able to get stuff done more easily or better than other people,” Fredrikson said. “Maybe because of who he was, or maybe because the stars align for this kind of person.”
In a social media post, Kerfoot’s family said they had peace knowing he and his mother “were paddling together to their shore lunch spot.”
Mark Hennessy knew Kerfoot for 40 years, but has had a closer view for the past three years. He said without Kerfoot, the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, located near the end of the Gunflint Trail, wouldn’t exist. Whenever there was a work project, the executive director said, Kerfoot would show up.
A teenage motorcyclist was killed in a collision with an SUV at a Burnsville intersection, officials said Friday.
The crash occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Burnsville Parkway and Interstate 35W, police said.
The motorcyclist was identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office as Peter Vsevolod Genis, 17, of Burnsville.
An SUV driver was turning left from westbound Burnsville Parkway to northbound 35W when Genis went through a red light while heading east and struck the SUV.
The SUV driver and a woman with him, both from Burnsville, were not hurt.
The other vehicle was a Mercedes SUV. The driver was a 30-year-old male from Burnsville, with a 29-year-old female passenger from Burnsville. Neither of them was injured.
