High voltage power lines transmitting electricity from the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant. Monticello Minnesota MN USA
Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant The plant generates about 600 megawatts, enough to serve 500,000 homes Location: About three miles northwest of Monticello, Minn., and 40 miles northwest of the Twin Cities on the banks of the Mississippi River. Plant Description: Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant is a single unit boiling water reactor. The plant received its operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September 1970. More than 500 people are employed full time at Monticello. Xcel Energy also owns the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant near Red Wing, Minn. In a boiling water reactor, water flows through the reactor and picks up heat released by the fissioning of uranium atoms. The water boils to steam, which then is directed to the turbine-generator to produce electricity. The reactor core holds 484 fuel assemblies. Each assembly is about 14 feet long and is a square array of individual fuel rods about the diameter of a finger. About every 22 months, the plant is shut down and one-third of the used fuel assemblies are removed from the core and replaced with new ones. The term “cycle” refers to the 22-month period of operation between refuelings.
Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: Monticello Minnesota MN USA
Photo credit: © Steve Skjold / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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