Fish kill blamed on water temps at nuclear plant

MONTICELLO, Minn. – An estimated 250 fish have died in the Mississippi River at the disabled Monticello nuclear station. The plant’s operator, Xcel Energy, said a safety shutdown at the plant this week suddenly cooled discharging water. The temperature sudden drop, from 43 to 30 degrees, was more of a shock than the fish could survive, the company said. Xcel emphasized that none of the radioactive tritium that has been leaking from the plant since November reached the river. Xcel’s point: The fish were not nuked. The sudden cooling of discharges occurred when the plant was closed temporarily this week for repairs of a 400,000-gallon leak of tritium-tainted waste water that began in November. Earlier this week Exel announced that tritium had entered ground water for the first time but not the river. Through the whole crisis at the plant, Xcel had insisted that the levels of tritium int he lealk were minuscule and no danger to human well-being.

Earlier: Nuclear waste at Monticello enters groundwater

Earlier: Regulators: Let’s not cry over spilt milk — err, tritium

Pulled from Mississippi. Xcel says it is working with the state wildlife experts and the state Pollution Control Agency on handling the fish kill.