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Kirsti Marohn

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The central Minnesota plant’s license is set to expire in 2030 — and Xcel Energy wants to keep it operating until at least 2040, as part of the utility’s  promise to pivot away from coal over the next few decades.

Monticello's nuclear power plant in central Minnesota generates enough electricity to power half a million homes, and has been a fixture in the community, providing jobs and tax revenue. But the plant's license is set to expire in 2030 -- and Xcel Energy wants to keep the plant operating until at least 2040, as part of its public promise to pivot away from coal over the next few decades.

Monticello at center of debate over nuclear future

Monticello at center of debate over nuclear future part 2

A man with a hard hat looks at another being screened.

Evan Frost | MPR News

A mint green control room with hundreds of knobs and buttons.

4 screens show different angles of the refueling floor.

A yellow sign on a fence with a radiation symbol on it.

Two men walk in front of a large, square, concrete building.

An illustration of a boiling water nuclear power plant

William Lager | MPR News

Six nuclear cooling towers are seen in front of a gray sky. 

A tower and a light pole rise out of the bottom of the frame.

A group of people in a room with monitors on the wall

Kirsti Marohn | MPR News

A hand holds a plastic bag with a notebook and package of potassium iodide

A man sits in a chair and talks on the phone.

A man bends over and sprays his pants with a spray can.

In Monticello, a city at the center of the nuclear energy debate

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