As some U.S. utilities are abandoning old nuclear power plants, Xcel Energy says it's investing $1.8 billion to extend the life of its 40-year-old Minnesota reactors.
At the company's Prairie Island nuclear plant in Red Wing, Minn., 1,550 contract workers this fall will replace two massive steam generators — at $280 million, its single most costly improvement project. The plant was completed in 1974 at a cost of $350 million.
The Minneapolis-based utility's other reactor, in Monticello, Minn., also is getting a $600 million upgrade that aims to keep it running safely and boost its output by nearly 13 percent.
"What we are facing here is a lot of spending to extend life another 20 years," Laura McCarten, Xcel's regional vice president, said last Thursday as she invited community members to see the new seven-story-tall steam generators to be installed at Prairie Island Unit 2.
Xcel's investments come at a time when some utilities are retreating from nuclear power.
Just 10 days ago, Southern California Edison said it would permanently retire both reactors at its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station between Los Angeles and San Diego. The decision came three years after spending $600 million to replace its steam generators. That project went badly. Leaks in the massive equipment triggered an emergency shutdown in January 2012. The plant never reopened.
Two other utilities this year have said they will shut down, or decommission, nuclear power plants, including one in Wisconsin. But Xcel executives say nuclear power remains a critical part of its power generation, which also relies on coal, wind, natural gas and other sources to serve its 1.2 million Minnesota electric customers.
Generating steam, and risk
At pressurized-water reactors like those at Prairie Island, steam generators are a key component, and a long-standing maintenance challenge.