Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant

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Active reactors ( gross ):

The nuclear power plant Monticello (English Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant) is located in Monticello, Minnesota in the United States, 40 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.

The nuclear power plant is owned by Xcel Energy Inc. and its subsidiary Northern States Power Company of Minnesota. It is next to the nuclear power plant Prairie Iceland the second nuclear power plant in the U.S. state of Minnesota.

Reactor

When reactor nuclear power plant in Monticello is a General Electric boiling water reactor by the SWR -3 design with a gross electrical output of 600 MW and a net electrical output of 572 MW. The reactor has a containment type Mark I.

The main contractor was Bechtel Corporation. Monticello is a turnkey system, the first criticality in 1970 and 1971 went into commercial operation.

The power plant has two-row cells cooler.

2010 produced the reactor 4,695 gigawatt hours of electricity. The annual utilization rate was thus 93.7 %.

The power plant site is located on the border between the counties Sherburne and Wright and is 850 acres in size. The cooling water is taken from the Mississippi River.

The operator plans to increase power plant of 585 to 656 megawatts. The first phase is to be completed in 2009 and the second phase will be completed by 2011. The price estimates from Xcel for the expansion will be 100 million to 135 million dollars. The state Public Utilities Commission must decide whether the project is needed.

History

On June 19, 1967 started the construction of the reactor. On March 5, 1971, the reactor was first synchronized with the power grid. The reactor went on June 30, 1971 in commercial operation.

From 2000, the power plant by the Nuclear Management Company ( NMC) is a joint venture of a predecessor of Xcel Energy with other shareholders was operated. With the exit of the operation in 2007 was transferred directly to Xcel Energy.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC ) renewed the operating license of the plant for another 20 years. On 16 March 2005, the license renewal was granted. Now the license is valid until September 8, 2030. There were no effects on the environment, which would argue against a license renewal. The operator had shown that he is able to deal effectively with the aging of the plant. The original operating license was due to expire on September 8, 2010.

Incidents

On November 19, 1971, the water tank overflowed. It reached 190 m3 of radioactively contaminated water into the Mississippi. Radioactive substances also penetrate into the river downstream water system of St. Paul.

On 17 January 2007, the reactor was shut down indefinitely. There was a disturbance takes place in a part of the plant where the pipes for superheated steam lead to a turbine. The vapor pressure of the turbine was due to a problem with a weld. Officials of the company investigated the cause. Apparently was welded improperly during construction in the early 1970s. But fatigue, which was triggered by vibrations, played a role. Four more nuclear power plants in the northeastern part of the country with similar designs were checked if the same problem was present. Xcel assured that this incident has no bearing on the power supply and the price of electricity to their customers.

September 11, 2008 at 10:47 clock, the plant was automatically shut down temporarily because of problems at the circuit breaker. There was no injury, no radioactivity was released and there was no energy supply problems.

On 17 September 2008, died a worker, the 47 -year-old Ricky D. Cummings, nuclear power plant in Monticello. At 10:17 clock he came just outside the power plant with a high voltage power line contact.

Data of the reactor units

The nuclear power plant Monticello has a block:

472973
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