April 2013 - Volume 13 - Xcel Energy

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MOVING To P.I. New steam generators for Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Station’s Unit Two are making a long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and up the Mississippi River to the plant near Red Wing, Minn. Employees of the AREVA St. Marcel factory and a handful of Xcel Energy representatives celebrated the end of the manufacturing cycle for steam generators in December in St. Marcel, France, before the two steam generators began their journey. Xcel Energy personnel were onsite in France during the manufacturing of the steam generators to ensure quality standards were met. New generators Dave Corbesia, senior quality control inspector at Prairie Island, reviewed all weld radiography film. Scott Redner, to increase project manager, provided oversight of the replacement steam generator tubing pre-service inspections. And Jerry Wren, performance program engineer, assisted with the primary-side vessel welds pre-service inspections. In addition, Gerry Daly, authorized nuclear in-service inspector at Prairie Island, visited the St. Marcel plant to wit- and efficiency ness primary side vessel and replacement steam generator tubing pre-service inspection activities. The replacement steam generators (RSGs) departed from the St. Marcel factory a month later and are headed to Prairie Island. The four components, collectively weighing 660 tons, will arrive at Prairie Island in mid-April, said John Walters, Nuclear manager, Project Controls. 6 XTRA APRIL 2013
Loading The components that make up Prairie Island’s new steam generators collectively weigh 660 tons and will arrive at the plant sometime this spring after a trip across the Atlantic Ocean and up the Mississippi River. AREVA has direct access to the Saone River, which hits the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Marseille. From there, the RSGs were loaded on an ocean vessel, which set sail on Feb. 9 for the port of New Orleans, La. After arriving in New Orleans, the RSGs were offloaded and placed on a shallow-draft barge for continued travel up the Mississippi River to Prairie Island. Prairie Island’s old steam generators will be changed out during the Unit Two outage scheduled for fall 2013. The new steam generators will increase the unit’s energy performance and efficiency while reducing future operation, maintenance and inspection costs, Walters said. The St. Marcel factory was awarded its first U.S. contract for the Prairie Island Unit One replacement steam generators in 1999, and those generators were eventually put into service in 2004. The order for the Unit Two steam generators was signed in 2006. After the generators are installed at the Prairie Island site, the two parts of each generator will be assembled and submitted to an inspection called a “hydrotest,” he said. They also will be inspected to ensure they meet federal standards. In anticipation of the generators’ arrival, a building was constructed to store and prepare them for installation. In addition, a complex of trailers was set up to provide workspace for the staff dedicated to this project. Preparations also have included a team representing Prairie Island meeting with NRC Region III officials to discuss the project’s oversight, scheduling and technical specifications, Walters said. This information is provided to help prepare NRC inspectors for the planned inspection of the generators. The generators are approximately 70 feet tall and weigh 330 tons each. The total project cost is $280 million. The replacement project will result in approximately 800 personnel being onsite during the 2013 Unit Two refueling effort, in addition to the hundreds of outage contractors onsite for other outage activities. The Unit Two steam generator replacement outage is expected to take 65 days. In other Prairie Island news, the plant’s Unit One reactor returned to full power on Jan. 8 after crews completed a scheduled maintenance and refueling outage. During the outage, which began Oct. 23, approximately 600 contractors helped plant staff complete maintenance tasks to prepare the unit for its next operating cycle and replaced one-third of the unit’s fuel. Xcel Energy’s Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear generating plants are among the company’s lowest-cost sources of generation on a per megawatt-hour basis. They run 24 hours a day, seven days per week, except during refueling outages, and they do not produce any greenhouse gas emissions. Each of the two 550-megawatt reactors at Prairie Island is refueled approximately once every 18 months. When both units are operating, the Prairie Island plant near Red Wing generates 1,100 megawatts of electricity. APRIL 2013 7
Page 1 and 2: XTRA VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 7 • APRI
Page 3 and 4: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR “A wonderfu
Page 5: “We have a full-time, dedicated s
Page 9 and 10: NEWS BRIEFS Xcel Energy donates to
Page 11 and 12: onmental Policy and Services. The t
Page 13 and 14: • Tax Policy - A major issue that
Page 15 and 16: also is in the process of extending
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Page 19 and 20: PEOPLE John Ridlon (johnrdln@yahoo.

April 2013 - Volume 13 - Xcel Energy

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