MONTICELLO, Minn. – The power company Xcel confirmed that nuclear waste from a November leak at its Monticello plant has edged through groundwater almost to the Mississippi River. Xcel said, however, that radioactive levels are “very low.” None of the radioactive tritium has been detected in the river water itself, Xcel said. Even if the radioactivity reaches the river it would be well below levels that occur naturally in the environment, said Chris Clark, an Xcel regional president, Clark said that teams have collected 75% of the tritium that was released in the lreak. In all, he said, 2.7 million gallons of water has been recovered from contaminated areas and pumped into safe storage to decay and be diluted and neutralized.

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