ALEC Members Tour Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station

Early last month, ALEC convened at the 2015 States and Nation Policy Summit in sunny Scottsdale, AZ. In conjunction with the conference, a handful of ALEC members toured the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Wintersburg, roughly an hour west of Phoenix.

Consisting of three pressurized water reactors, Palo Verde is the largest power plant of any kind in the U.S. The average electric production of the plant is roughly 3.9 gigawatts, enough to provide power to roughly four million homes.

Interestingly, Palo Verde is the only large-scale nuclear power plant in the world to not be located on a large body of water. Instead, treated effluent is pumped from a wastewater treatment plant roughly 40 miles away in Phoenix for cooling purposes.

A small selection of photos from the visit can be found below:

ALEC members and Palo Verde staff in front of the plant’s second reactor

Inside the plant control room

In front of a turbine and generator