GENOA, Wis. – One of the last remaining structures of Dairyland Power Cooperative’s former coal-powered plant at Genoa will come tumbling down Tuesday, March 19. According to a press release from the company explosive charges will be used to drop a 500-foot smoke stack and main building that was retired June 1, 2021 after 52 years of operation.
The cooperative announced the demolition of Genoa Station No. 3 will commence at 10 a.m., weather permitting. As a precautionary measure State Highway 35 near the plant will be closed for 30 minutes during demolition. The Mississippi River will also briefly closed to traffic adjacent to the river bank.
Dairyland is contracting with Veit Co. of Rogers, Minnesota on the demolition.
Several ancillary structures at the plant were dropped by explosions in October as part of the demolition.
The Genoa site was home to a nuclear reactor and the coal fired plant. The boiling water nuclear reactor was located directly adjacent to the coal-fired Genoa Station number three. Although the reactor has been demolished and decommissioned, spent nuclear fuel is still stored at the location.
The nuclear reactor was built from 1963 to 1967. It was designed and built by Allis-Chalmers 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.
In April 1987, the reactor was shut down because the small size of the plant made it no longer economically viable. The reactor pressure vessel was removed in May 2007 and shipped to Chem-Nuclear’s Barnwell, South Carolina Low-Level Radioactive Waste disposal facility.
In 2012, spent nuclear fuel from the reactor was sealed into a dry cask storage 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.
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