Prairie Island plant declares 'unusual event'

Xcel Energy Inc. says its Prairie Island nuclear plant near Red Wing declared an "unusual event" after some security equipment failed.

The Minneapolis-based utility says the event happened around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday and was declared over just before 6 p.m. Xcel says there was no release of radioactive material and that there is no danger to the public or plant employees.

Plant officials made the declaration after some security equipment temporarily failed. The equipment has been restored, and plant officials are investigating the cause. The plant maintained security during the event.

Xcel says it notified federal, state and local officials. The declaration is the lowest of four emergency classifications.

Prairie Island's Unit 2 continues to operate at full power. Unit 1 remains offline has part of a scheduled refueling outage.