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Getting back to yes: A local perspective on decommissioning, restart, and responsibility
For 45 years, Duane Arnold Energy Center operated in Linn County, Ia., near the town of Palo and just northwest of Cedar Rapids. The facility, owned by NextEra Energy, was the only nuclear power plant in the state.
In August 2020, a historic derecho swept across eastern Iowa with winds approaching 140 miles per hour. Damage to the plant’s cooling towers accelerated a shutdown that had already been planned, and the facility entered decommissioning soon after, with its fuel removed in October of that year. Iowa’s only nuclear plant had gone off line.
Today the national energy landscape looks very different than it did just six short years ago. Electricity demand is rising rapidly as data centers, artificial intelligence infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and electrification expand across the country. Reliable, carbon-free baseload power has become increasingly valuable. In that context, Linn County has approved the rezoning necessary to support the recommissioning and restart of Duane Arnold and is actively supporting NextEra’s efforts to secure the remaining state and federal approvals.
Aaron Barry, Markus H. A. Piro
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 5 | May 2024 | Pages 1131-1154
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2229193
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Canada has operated 17 research reactors at 11 different locations. The spent fuel from these research reactors differs significantly from CANDU fuel, which makes up the vast majority of spent fuel in Canada, and will eventually require disposal. The focus of this paper is to identify properties specific to Canadian research reactor fuel designs that would impact their suitability for disposal. The radionuclide inventory, hazardous chemical inventory, decay heat, residual enrichment, radiation decay rates, and gas generation of several Canadian research reactor fuel designs were simulated using the SCALE 6.2.4 software suite. The National Research Universal U3Si/Al dispersion rod, the National Research Experimental uranium metal X-rod, the Royal Military College UO2 SLOWPOKE-2 core, and the Whiteshell Reactor 1 uranium carbide bundle were investigated. Fuel burnup is the primary driver for the concentration of most radionuclides, hazardous chemicals, decay heat, and radiation decay rates. Carbon-14, chlorine-36, and mercury are driven by initial impurities in the fuel, which vary by fuel design. Low burnup, enriched fuels constitute a reasonable bounding case for the evaluation of criticality safety and proliferation risks. Canadian research reactor fuels are unlikely to present a greater risk of over pressurization from helium generation than CANDU fuel. Overall, the small volume of Canadian research reactor fuels requiring disposal is an important factor in the evaluation of disposal requirements.
