Unit 2 at Minnesota's Prairie Island Station Goes Offline

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Officials at Prairie Island Nuclear Power Station, which is located in Welch, Minnesota, told Industrial Info that Unit 1 was forced offline Wednesday due to a pump seal leak. The station is owned by Northern States Power Company (Minneapolis, Minnesota), a subsidiary of Xcel Energy Incorporated (NYSE:XEL) (Minneapolis).

Officials expect repairs to take at least a week to complete, but are optimistic that it will be a quick turnaround. Unit 2 was not affected and continues to operate at full power.

Unit 1 had been taken offline earlier this fall for a scheduled refuel outage, which lasted 46 days.

The Prairie Island station has two pressurized water reactors that generate close to 20% of the electricity used by Xcel's consumers in the Upper Midwest.

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