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Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station

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The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station is a decommissioned nuclear power plant built by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in Herald, California .

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48-555: In 1966, SMUD purchased 2,100 acres (850 ha) in southeast Sacramento County for a nuclear power plant, which was built in Herald, 25 miles (40 km) south-east of downtown Sacramento. In the early 1970s, a small pond was expanded to a 160-acre (65 ha) lake to serve as an emergency backup water supply for the station. The lake has always received its water from the Folsom South Canal and has no relationship with

96-531: A Superior Court and Sheriff (as an officer of the court ), both located in a designated "shire town". Bennington County, Vermont has two shire towns; the court for "North Shire" is in the shire town Manchester , and the Sheriff for the county and court for "South Shire" are in the shire town Bennington. In 2024, Connecticut , which had not defined their counties for anything but statistical, historical and weather warning purposes since 1960, along with ending

144-410: A county seat may be an independent city surrounded by, but not part of, the county of which it is the administrative center; for example, Fairfax City is both the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia and completely surrounded by Fairfax County, but the city is politically independent of the county. When the county seat is in the independent city, government offices such as the courthouse may be in

192-411: A female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.24. In the county, 27.6% of the population was under the age of 18, 9.5% was from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.1%

240-524: A majority in the county was George H. W. Bush in 1988 . In gubernatorial elections, Sacramento County is typically a bellwether, having voted for the winner every time since 1962 with the exception of 1970 and 2002. In the House of Representatives , all of California's 6th congressional district and portions of its 3rd , and 7th districts are in the county. In the State Assembly , all of

288-486: A political party. The following table includes the number of incidents reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense. School districts include: K-12: Secondary: Elementary: Sacramento Regional Transit District , also known as Sacramento RT, provides public transit throughout the county. It operates bus services, as well as light rail services on the Blue , Green , and Gold lines. In addition,

336-593: Is a county located in the U.S. state of California . As of the 2020 census , the population was 1,585,055. Its county seat is Sacramento , which has been the state capital of California since 1854. Sacramento County is the central county of the Greater Sacramento metropolitan area. The county covers about 994 square miles (2,570 km ) in the northern portion of the Central Valley , on into Gold Country . Sacramento County extends from

384-486: Is a privately owned airport between North Highlands and Rio Linda. There are also privately owned public use airports located in Elk Grove and Rio Linda. The Sacramento County Department of Transportation (SACDOT) maintains approximately 2200 miles of roadway within the unincorporated area. The roads range from six lane thoroughfares to rural roads. In February 1851, the county was divided into eight civil townships :

432-593: Is an administrative center, seat of government , or capital city of a county or civil parish . The term is in use in five countries: Canada , China , Hungary , Romania , and the United States . An equivalent term, shire town , is used in the U.S. state of Vermont and in several other English-speaking jurisdictions, such as Venezuela . In Canada , the provinces of Ontario , Quebec , New Brunswick , Prince Edward Island , and Nova Scotia have counties as an administrative division of government below

480-478: Is buried in the old Franklin Cemetery. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 994 square miles (2,570 km ), of which 965 square miles (2,500 km ) is land and 29 square miles (75 km ) (3.0%) is water. Most of the county is at an elevation close to sea level, with some areas below sea level. The highest point in the county is Carpenter Hill at 828 feet (252 m), in

528-409: Is known as the seat of its county. Generally, the county legislature, county courthouse, sheriff's department headquarters, hall of records, jail and correctional facility are located in the county seat, though some functions (such as highway maintenance, which usually requires a large garage for vehicles, along with asphalt and salt storage facilities) may also be located or conducted in other parts of

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576-628: The 7th and 8th districts and parts of the 6th , 9th , and 11th districts are in the county. In the State Senate , parts of the 1st , 3rd , 4th , 6th , and 8th districts are in the county. According to the California Secretary of State , as of October 22, 2012, Sacramento County has 698,899 registered voters, out of 944,243 eligible (74%). Of those, 306,960 (44%) are registered Democrats, 225,688 (32%) are registered Republicans , and 134,677 (19%) have declined to state

624-877: The California Zephyr , the Capitol Corridor , and the San Joaquins , which link the region with destinations across California and the United States. Sacramento International Airport is a major, full-service airport with passenger flights. It is owned by the County of Sacramento. The county also owns Sacramento Mather Airport in Rancho Cordova and Sacramento Executive Airport , both of which are general aviation airports. Sacramento McClellan Airport , formerly McClellan Air Force Base,

672-627: The Democratic candidates. Candidates from the Democratic Party have carried the county in the past eight presidential elections, and have won a majority of the county's votes four times during that time (in 2008 , 2012 , 2016 , and 2020 ). The city of Sacramento is strongly Democratic, while rural areas are strongly Republican ; suburban areas are more divided. This pattern is also present in congressional and state legislative elections. The last Republican presidential candidate to win

720-640: The Sacramento County Superior Court . Under its foundational Charter, the five-member elected Sacramento County Board of Supervisors (BOS) is the county legislature. The board operates in a legislative, executive, and quasi-judicial capacity. The current members are: The Sacramento County Code is the codified law of Sacramento County in the form of local ordinances passed by the Board of Supervisors. The Sacramento County Sheriff provides court protection and jail management for

768-586: The Yolobus provides Sacramento County with service connecting to destinations in neighboring Yolo County , such as Davis . SaRT and Yolobus both provide bus services connecting Sacramento with Sacramento International Airport . Amtrak and its Amtrak California subsidiary operate passenger rail service from the Sacramento Valley station . This station is served by the Coast Starlight ,

816-513: The 600 MW natural gas-fired Cosumnes Power Plant. On October 23, 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released the majority of the site for unrestricted public use, while approximately 11 acres (4.5 ha) of land including a storage building for low-level radioactive waste and a dry-cask spent fuel storage facility remain under NRC licenses. According to a study published in the journal Biomedicine International ,

864-465: The NRC itself were at the heart of the problem and should have been fixed years before. “In summary, the information was available and known which could have prevented this overcooling transient; but in the absence of adequate plant modifications, the incident should have been expected,” the staff wrote. The plant operated from April 1975 to June 1989, with a lifetime capacity factor of less than 40%; it

912-884: The United States, followed by Towson , the county seat of Baltimore County, Maryland . Likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey , though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township , an incorporated municipality. In some states, often those that were among the original Thirteen Colonies , county seats include or formerly included "Court House" as part of their name, such as Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia . Most counties have only one county seat. However, some counties in Alabama , Arkansas , Georgia , Iowa , Kentucky , Massachusetts , Mississippi , Missouri , New Hampshire , New York , and Vermont have two or more county seats, usually located on opposite sides of

960-561: The author Joseph Mangano's history of exaggerated claims about radiological risks. The plant cost $ 375 million when it was built in 1974 ($ 1.8 billion in 2023 dollars) and it cost about $ 120 million in 1974 dollars to decommission ($ 577 million in 2023 dollars), according to the SMUD Rancho Seco Nuclear Education Center. Sacramento County, California Sacramento County ( / ˌ s æ k r ə ˈ m ɛ n t oʊ / )

1008-495: The census of 2000, there were 1,223,499 people, 453,602 households, and 297,562 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,267 inhabitants per square mile (489/km ). There were 474,814 housing units at an average density of 492 per square mile (190/km ). The racial makeup of the county was 64.0% White , 10.6% Black or African American , 1.09% Native American , 13.5% Asian , 0.6% Pacific Islander , 7.5% from other races , and 5.8% from two or more races. 19.3% of

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1056-605: The city of Sacramento and Folsom provide additional, often non-essential services. It is composed of the elected five-member Board of Supervisors , several other elected offices including the Sheriff , District Attorney , and Assessor , and numerous county departments and entities under the supervision of the County Executive Officer. In addition, several entities of the government of California have jurisdiction conterminous with Sacramento County, such as

1104-526: The counties after his unification, there were about 1,000. Under the Eastern Han dynasty , the number of counties increased to above 1,000. About 1400 existed when the Sui dynasty abolished the commandery level (郡 jùn), which was the level just above counties, and demoted some commanderies to counties. In Imperial China, the county was a significant administrative unit because it marked the lowest level of

1152-851: The county include the Sacramento County Park Rangers that service the County Parks, Twin Rivers Unified School District Police servicing police services for Twin Rivers School District, and the Fulton-El Camino Park District Police Department servicing Recreation and Park Districts. Sacramento County was politically competitive in most presidential elections between 1976 and 2004, but now votes significantly in favor of

1200-418: The county, especially if it is geographically large. A county seat is usually an incorporated municipality . The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia , where the county seat is the entire county. Ellicott City , the county seat of Howard County, Maryland , is the largest unincorporated county seat in

1248-420: The county. Examples include Harrison County, Mississippi , which has both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats, and Hinds County, Mississippi , which has both Raymond and the state capital of Jackson . The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult. There have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of civic pride for

1296-616: The entire county. It provides patrol and detective services for the unincorporated areas of the county. Incorporated municipalities within the county that have their own municipal police departments or contract with the Sacramento County sheriff for their policing are: Elk Grove, 170,000, municipal department; Citrus Heights, 88,000, municipal department; Folsom, 78,000, municipal department; Isleton, sheriff contract; Rancho Cordova, 73,000, sheriff contract; Galt, population 26,000, municipal department. Other law enforcement agencies in

1344-424: The imperial bureaucratic structure; in other words, it was the lowest level that the government reached. Government below the county level was often undertaken through informal non-bureaucratic means, varying between dynasties. The head of a county was the magistrate , who oversaw both the day-to-day operations of the county as well as civil and criminal cases. The current number of counties mostly resembled that of

1392-585: The increase of Han Chinese population in Taiwan, the number of counties also grew by time. By the end of Qing era, there were 11 counties in Taiwan. Protestant missionaries in China first romanized the term as hien . When Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, the hierarchy of divisions also incorporated into the Japanese system in the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. By September 1945, Taiwan

1440-573: The independent city under an agreement, such as in Albemarle , or may in be enclaves of the county surrounded by the independent city, such as in Fairfax . Others, such as Prince William , have the courthouse in an enclave surrounded by the independent city and have the county government, the Board of Supervisors, in a different part of the county, far from the county seat. The following counties have their county seat in an independent city: Bedford

1488-758: The later years of the Qing dynasty . Changes of location and names of counties in Chinese history have been a major field of research in Chinese historical geography, especially from the 1960s to the 1980s. There are 1,355 counties in Mainland China out of a total of 2,851 county-level divisions. In Taiwan , the first counties were first established in 1661 by the Kingdom of Tungning . The later ruler Qing empire inherited this type of administrative divisions. With

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1536-755: The low delta lands between the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River , including Suisun Bay , north to about ten miles (16 km) beyond the State Capitol and east into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains . The southernmost portion of Sacramento County has direct access to San Francisco Bay . Since 2010, statewide droughts in California have further strained Sacramento County's water security . Sacramento County

1584-763: The plant's non-nuclear instrumentation system led to steam generator dryout (ref NRC LER 312/78-001). This triggered an automatic reactor shutdown. In a 2005 document, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicated that it was the third most serious safety-related occurrence in the United States as of 2005 (behind the Three Mile Island accident and the Browns Ferry cable tray fire). The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff concluded that fundamental design flaws which were known by plant operators and

1632-431: The plant, and the 425-foot high (130 m) cooling towers remain a prominent part of the local landscape as the tallest buildings in the Central Valley . Also scattered throughout the area around the plant are abandoned civil defense sirens that at one time would have warned people of a radioactivity release from the station. Additions to SMUD's Rancho Seco property have included an 11 MW solar installation and, in 2006,

1680-469: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 10.2% were of German , 7.0% English, 6.7% Irish and 5.1% American ancestry according to Census 2000 . 75.7% spoke only English at home; 10.0% spoke Spanish, 1.5% Hmong , 1.4% Chinese or Mandarin , 1.3% Vietnamese , 1.2% Tagalog and 1.2% Russian . There were 453,602 households, out of which 33.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.4% were married couples living together, 14.1% had

1728-698: The population were below the poverty line, including 20.2% of those under age 18 and 6.6% of those age 65 or over. The Government of Sacramento County is defined and authorized under the California Constitution , California law , and the Charter of the County of Sacramento. Much of the Government of California is in practice the responsibility of county governments such as the Government of Sacramento County, while municipalities such as

1776-410: The power plant's daily water supply. Surrounding the lake is 400 acres (160 ha) of recreational area originally operated by the County of Sacramento for day-use activities. The 2,772 MWt Babcock & Wilcox pressurized water reactor (913 MWe) achieved initial criticality on September 16, 1974, and entered commercial operation on April 17, 1975. On March 20, 1978, a power supply failure for

1824-775: The provincial level, and thus county seats. In the provinces of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia the term "shire town" is used in place of county seat. County seats in China are the administrative centers of the counties in the People's Republic of China . Xian have existed since the Warring States period and were set up nationwide by the Qin dynasty . The number of counties in China proper gradually increased from dynasty to dynasty. As Qin Shi Huang reorganized

1872-427: The seven marked by asterisks below, plus Sacramento township. In July of that year, American township was divided off from Sacramento township. In 1856, the Board of Supervisors realigned the divisions into the 14 civil townships below, plus the city of Sacramento. The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2020 census of Sacramento County. † county seat County seat A county seat

1920-871: The southeast part of Folsom . Major watercourses in the county include the American River , Sacramento River , Cosumnes River , a tributary of the Mokelumne River , and Dry Creek , a tributary of the Sacramento River. The 2010 United States Census reported that Sacramento County had a population of 1,418,788. The racial makeup of Sacramento County was 815,151 (57.5%) White , 200,228 (15.4%) African American , 14,308 (1.0%) Native American , 203,211 (14.3%) Asian , 13,858 (1.0%) Pacific Islander , 131,691 (9.3%) from other races , and 93,511 (6.6%) from two or more races. There were 306,196 Hispanic or Latino residents of any race (21.6%). As of

1968-777: The state's area, has no borough government or borough seat. One borough, the Lake and Peninsula Borough , has its borough seat located in another borough, namely King Salmon in Bristol Bay Borough . In Louisiana , which is divided into parishes rather than counties, county seats are referred to as "parish seats". In New England , counties have served mainly as dividing lines for the states' judicial systems. Rhode Island has no county level of government and thus no county seats, and Massachusetts has dissolved many but not all of its county governments. In Vermont , Massachusetts , and Maine county government consists only of

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2016-472: The statistically significant drop in cancer rates observed in Sacramento County between 1988 and 2009 (plant closed in 1989) might be partially attributable to the closure of the Rancho Seco plant, and the resultant decline in nuclear emissions. The result has been questioned by radiation expert and health physicist Robert Emery, who suggested it being the result of the sharpshooter fallacy and highlighted

2064-416: The towns involved, along with providing employment opportunities. There are 33 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states: Alaska is divided into boroughs rather than counties; the county seat in these case is referred to as the "borough seat"; this includes six consolidated city-borough governments (one of which is styled as a "municipality"). The Unorganized Borough, Alaska , which covers 49% of

2112-624: The use of county seats in particular, will fully transition with the permission of the United States Census Bureau to a system of councils of government for the purposes of boundary definition and as county equivalents. Two counties in South Dakota , Oglala Lakota and Todd , have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county. Their county-level services are provided by Fall River County and Tripp County , respectively. In Virginia ,

2160-439: Was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.9 males. For every 100 female residents aged 18 and over, there were 92.5 males. The median income for a household in the county was $ 43,816, and the median income for a family was $ 50,717. Males had a median income of $ 39,482 versus $ 31,569 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 21,142. About 10.3% of families and 14.1% of

2208-467: Was closed by public vote in June 1989 (53% to 47%) after half of its intended lifetime primarily for economic reasons: ratepayers had seen their rates doubled in the last four years to pay for improvements to the plant, and electricity from natural gas was priced at half that of the electricity generated by Rancho Seco. (2.3 cents / kWh, vs. 5.4 cents / kWh) All power-generating equipment has been removed from

2256-573: Was divided into 8 prefectures ( 州 and 廳 ), which remained after the Republic of China took over. There are 13 county seats in Taiwan, which function as county-administered cities , urban townships , or rural townships . In most of the United States , a county is an administrative or political subdivision of a state that consists of a geographic area with specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government

2304-611: Was one of the original counties of California, which were created in 1850 at the time of statehood. The county was named after the Sacramento River , which forms its western border. The river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santisimo Sacramento (Most Holy Sacrament), referring to the Catholic Eucharist . Alexander Hamilton Willard , a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition ,

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