Minnesotans are wondering why state regulators waited months to inform the public that hundreds of thousands of gallons of radioactive water leaked from Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear power plant. 

Minnesota Department of Health released a statement Thursday about Xcel’s efforts to clean up 400,000 gallons of the water containing tritium that leaked from a water pipe running between two buildings at its plant. 

Xcel first reported the leak to the Minnesota Duty Officer and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November, but the spill was only made public this week. 

“The leak was stopped and the company is monitoring the groundwater plume through two dozen wells. An estimated 20% of the tritium has been recovered through extraction wells, and contaminated water continues to be pumped from the groundwater,” the health department wrote. 

Local officials said the leak “poses no health and safety risk to the local community or environment” and has not reached the Mississippi River or surrounding aquifers.

Xcel said the leaked radioactive water is “fully contained on-site and has not been detected beyond the facility or in any local drinking water.” 

And if the leak of tritium-tainted water ‘poses no health and safety risk to the local community or environment,’ why did the company and government officials hide the incident from the public for months?