Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station

The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station is a decommissioned nuclear power plant that was built and operated by SMUD from 1975 to 1989. In May, our chapter got a behind-the-scenes tour of the plant. We saw:

· The cooling towers (the largest structures in the Central Valley)
· The containment building which housed the reactor and steam generators, and remaining structures that supported the turbine generator
· The education center, which has a scale model of the plant and a piece of the original control room
· The long-term storage building, which houses 15 years of fuel

Our SMUD tour guides provided an overview of nuclear power and taught us the history of the plant.