La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor (LACBWR) is a retired

Boiling Water Reactor A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is a design different from a Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuc ...

(BWR)

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

located near

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population as of the 2020 census w ...

in the small village of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, in

Vernon County, Wisconsin Vernon County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,714. Its county seat is Viroqua. History Vernon County was renamed from Bad Ax County on March 22, 1862. Bad Ax County had been created on ...

, approximately 17 miles south of La Crosse along the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. It was located directly adjacent to the coal-fired Genoa Generating Station. The site is owned and was operated by the Dairyland Power Cooperative (DPC). LACBWR was built from 1963 to 1967 as part of a federal project to demonstrate the viability of peacetime nuclear power. It was designed and built by

Allis-Chalmers Allis-Chalmers was a U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various industries. Its business lines included agricultural equipment, construction equipment, power generation and power transmission equipment, and machinery for use in industrial setti ...

and funded in part by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in cooperation with Dairyland Power Cooperative. The reactor began commercial operation in 1969 and reached full capacity in 1971. LACBWR had a 50 MW electrical output from a forced-circulation, direct-cycle

boiling water reactor A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is a design different from a Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuc ...

as its heat source. In 1973 the reactor and fuel were transferred in full to Dairyland Power.

Decommissioning and Waste Disposal

In April 1987, LACBWR was shut down because the small size of the plant made it no longer economically viable. It was placed in

SAFSTOR SAFSTOR is a nuclear decommissioning method in which a nuclear power plant or facility governed by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is ''"placed and maintained in a condition that allows the facility to be safely stored and subsequ ...

August 7, 1991. The reactor pressure vessel was removed in May 2007 and shipped to Chem-Nuclear's

Barnwell, South Carolina Barnwell is a city in and county seat of Barnwell County, South Carolina, United States, located along U.S. Route 278. The population was 4,750 at the 2010 census. Geography Barnwell is located east of the center of Barnwell County at (33.244 ...

Low-Level Radioactive Waste Low-level waste (LLW) or Low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) is nuclear waste that does not fit into the categorical definitions for intermediate-level waste (ILW), high-level waste (HLW), spent nuclear fuel (SNF), transuranic waste (TRU), or cer ...

(LLRW) disposal facility. The shipment weighed approximately 310 tons and required a specially designed rail car. In 2012, spent nuclear fuel from the reactor was sealed into a

dry cask storage Dry cask storage is a method of storing high-level radioactive waste, such as spent nuclear fuel that has already been cooled in the spent fuel pool for at least one year and often as much as ten years. Casks are typically steel cylinders that ar ...

installation located immediately south of the Genoa Generating Station. Spent reactor fuel continues to be stored on site pending the creation of a national radioactive waste disposal facility such as

Yucca Mountain Yucca Mountain is a mountain in Nevada, near its border with California, approximately northwest of Las Vegas. Located in the Great Basin, Yucca Mountain is east of the Amargosa Desert, south of the Nevada Test and Training Range and in the Ne ...

. In 2016, Dairyland Power transferred control of the inactive reactor facility to LaCrosseSolutions, a subsidiary of Utah-based

EnergySolutions EnergySolutions (stylized as Energy''Solutions''), headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is one of the largest processors of low level waste (LLW) in America, making it also one of the world's largest nuclear waste processors. It was formed in 20 ...

, for the purpose of demolition and decommissioning. In February 2017, workers spilled about 400 gallons of radioactive wastewater into the Mississippi River after leaving a hose and sump pump in a tank overnight. The wastewater contained

Caesium-137 Caesium-137 (), cesium-137 (US), or radiocaesium, is a radioactive isotope of caesium that is formed as one of the more common fission products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 and other fissionable isotopes in nuclear reactors and nucl ...

at concentrations greater than allowed under federal regulation for discharge; however, the resulting radiation was below levels considered harmful to human health. In another incident, routine tests from December 2017 to August 2018 detected elevated levels of

tritium Tritium ( or , ) or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life about 12 years. The nucleus of tritium (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus o ...

in groundwater at the site. The tritium was traced to condensation around a vent installed during demolition of the facility and the leak was mitigated before spreading to the Mississippi River. In 2019, EnergySolutions announced that it had completed the physical demolition of the reactor. The company has subsequently applied for extensions to December 2022 to provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with sufficient survey data to proceed with the full decommissioning of the site, excluding spent fuel storage.

References

External links

NukeWorker

Dairyland Power Cooperative LACBWR page
{{Authority control Energy infrastructure completed in 1973 Buildings and structures in Vernon County, Wisconsin Former nuclear power stations in the United States Nuclear power plants in Wisconsin Former power stations in Wisconsin