La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor
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La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor (LACBWR) is a decommissioned Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) nuclear power plant located near La Crosse, Wisconsin in the small village of Genoa, Wisconsin, in Vernon County, Wisconsin, approximately 17 miles south of La Crosse along the Mississippi River. The site is owned and was operated by the Dairyland Power Cooperative (DPC).
LACBWR was built in 1967 as part of a federal project to demonstrate the viability of peacetime nuclear power. It was funded in part by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in cooperation with Dairyland Power Cooperative. LACBWR had a 50 MW electrical output from a forced-circulation, direct-cycle boiling water reactor as its heat source. In 1973 the reactor and fuel was transferred in full to Dairyland Power.
In April of 1983 LACBWR was shutdown. It was placed in SAFSTOR August 7, 1991. Limited and gradual dismantlement is currently underway, with plans to store spent fuel onsite in dry casks until federal storage is available. The reactor core is scheduled to be removed in 2007 for disposal at Chem-Nuclear's Barnwell, South Carolina Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) disposal facility.
[edit] References
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- Dairyland Power Cooporative
- Magney, Reid. "Change is coming at Dairyland facility", "La Crosse Tribune", October 15, 2006.