Monticello Nuclear Reactor Urgent Action: Comment Period Coming up Soon!
Posted: 5th March 2024
Get your pencils (or your virtual signature) ready!
Any day now the comment period will be opening.
What to Know…
Xcel Energy has applied to run its old Monticello nuclear reactor in Minnesota until 2050, when it would be 80. Will you add your voice to say ‘No way! I will not stand by while Xcel poisons our water!’
Nukewatch has a DSEIS is expected to be a whitewash of the risky and negative impacts of operating the Monticello reactor.
A Little Background:
Monticello was designed by General Electric to run for 40 years, from 1970 to 2010. The NRC has already given Xcel permission to run Monticello for 60 years, until 2030.
This old reactor endangers our communities and our waters. It threatens accidental radiation releases, like the recent, 829,000-gallon leak of radioactive tritium wastewater which may have reached the Mississippi River.[1] Like all nuclear reactors, it is allowed to routinely release radioactive gases and liquids to the air and water merely by operating.
We should not risk another 26 years of allowable radioactive releases from Monticello, or the ongoing risk of new accidental radioactive releases, accumulation of radioactive waste which sits on the river bank in casks with no long term storage solution, or all the waste heat (thermal pollution) produced by the reactor.
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[1] CBS Minnesota, WCCO Staff, “Xcel Energy: Small amount of leaked water may have reached the Mississippi River”, July 20, 2023,