Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant restarts after forced outage
On June 28, 2011, Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant restarted its operations following a forced outage to replace a leaking safety relief valve (SRV). The Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant is a nuclear power plant located in Monticello, Minnesota, along the Mississippi River, with an estimated population count from the 2010 census as having a population of 62,976 people living within 10 miles (16 km) of Monticello Nuclear Plant.
At 10:27 a.m. (CST) on June 24, 2011, Monticello operators inserted a manual scram to complete a reactor shutdown. The unit is currently shut down and in a safe and stable condition. Station personnel shut down the reactor to commence an outage to replace a leaking safety relief valve (SRV).
The Nucelar plant had shutdown on June 24, 2011, after leakage through the “E” safety relief valve reached licensee/vendor pre-established limits for continued operation. The valve had exhibited higher than normal tailpipe temperatures, indicative of leakage through the valve, following plant restart from a planned refueling outage in May 2011.
The NRC resident inspectors, augmented by a region-based inspector, monitored the reactor shutdown, the valve replacement activities and the subsequent restart, and has no concerns.
State and local officials had been informed. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a press release on June 23, 2011, describing the event. The preliminary notification constitutes EARLY notice of events of POSSIBLE safety or public interest significance. Some of the information may not yet be fully verified or evaluated by the Region III staff.
The information presented by the NRC had been discussed with the licensee, Northern States Power Company,and is the most current information available as of 8:00 a.m. (CST), on June 29, 2011 as released by the U.S. NRC.
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