The Prairie Island nuclear plant near Minneapolis spent much of Thursday under alert status following a leak of chlorine bleach from a system used to purify cooling water.
In a release, Xcel Energy said plant staff found a break in a 2 inch pipe connected to a tank containing 500 gallons of sodium hypochlorite just before 4 a.m. The leak did not compromise the safety of nuclear operations, and both of the plant’s roughly 550 megawatt pressurized water reactors continued operating at full power throughout the incident. The spill was contained within a berm and an environmental team began to clean up the material, the fumes from which the National Institutes of Health indicate can be harmful if inhaled.
Two resident Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors reported to the site, according to an NRC release, and conferred with staff at the agency’s Lisle, Ill., office. The alert, the second lowest of the NRC’s emergency categories, was called off just after 2 p.m. the same day.