Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant Has Drilled for Disasters, Plans to Protect Area Communities Like St. Michael

Editor’s Note: Mike Schoemer, local editor of St. Michael Patch, worked in the shadows of the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant for three years as editor of the Monticello Times. During that time, the plant completed its above ground spent fuel storage site, ran several drills on various emergency scenarios with local first-responders and law enforcement, and completed its licensing process to keep the plant operational for the next 20 years. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, along with the Department of Homeland Security, oversaw most of these processes.

As the situation worsens at the three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant  in quake-ravaged Japan, nuclear administrators and workers at the local Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, less than 15 miles away from St. Michael-Albertville and just 45 miles away from downtown Minneapolis, are watching with vested interest.

And an uneasy public also wonders, “Could it happen here?”

The short answer is probably not - the two plants in this state aren't anywhere near a major fault line and a tsunami risk is virtually nil. But the long answer to a deadly one-two punch scenario like the one that hit Japan is, simply, unknown.

Monticello’s staff has run through dozens of different emergency scenarios, including a terrorist attack where a jumbo jet is flown into the reactor building and a security breach is conducted by a roadside bomb. In each and every case, staff at the plant follows safety steps created by plant executives and engineers to carefully shut down the plant, contain the reactor core and limit the amount of radiation released into the air below national standards.

They also drill for response to natural disasters, including tornado activity. The plant, in fact, had a small tornado pass over Monticello last year.

In each case, precautions have been taken and plans have been made. The Monticello plant, which is a boiling water plant much like the facility in Japan, can deal with loss of power, damage to the core buildings and more. And engineers also have a last-ditch plan that can douse the core with river water, which is actually safer than using seawater (that actually destroys the generator).

“All nuclear power plants, including ours, are built to withstand environmental hazards, including earthquakes, tornadoes and floods. Even those plants that are located outside of areas with extensive seismic activity are designed for safety in the event of such a natural disaster,” Xcel officials said in a press release issued to St. Michael Patch yesterday by Monticello spokesperson Patrick Thompson.
“The NRC requires that safety-significant structures, systems, and components be designed to take into account the most severe natural phenomena historically reported for a site and surrounding area. The NRC then adds a margin for error to account for the historical data’s limited accuracy. In other words, U.S. nuclear power plants are designed to be safe based on historical data from the area’s maximum credible earthquake.”

As for other emergencies, redundancy processes protect those, the energy company said. The Japanese plant was crippled when the facility lost all power after batteries failed and generators were swamped with seawater from the tsunami waves.

“Each plant has several redundant back-up systems to ensure the reactors are maintained in safe condition should the plant lose off-site power, and our operators train specifically to respond to blackout conditions. Our plants’ back-up systems include diesel generators with enough fuel to run for a week to supply power to safety-related equipment and battery back-ups to supply power to critical pumps, valves, nuclear instrumentation and emergency lighting. Our plants also have additional defense-in-depth high-pressure systems capable of supplying water to the reactor. Our operators are trained to take additional steps should any of the back-up systems fail.”

In an effort to contact leadership at the Monticello Plant, plant manager John Grubb, a St. Michael resident, said he was monitoring Japan but far too busy with the current outage at his own plant to let it occupy too much of his time.

More than 1,000 laborers will be on site this year at the Monticello plant as the generating station, which is now licensed to be in operation until 2030, uprates its power output to provide more energy the regional Xcel Energy grid. The plant is not generating power during this time.

There will be, however, a transfer of nuclear waste to the storage containment facility at the Monticello site. The so-called “dry casks” are huge, concrete containers that include a metallic core housing for the spent fuel rods. They are designed to withstand several different forces of impact, including tornado activity, staff said.