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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.
2022 ANS Annual Meeting
Senior Policy Fellow
Argonne National Laboratory
Mr. Dickman is a Senior Policy Fellow with Argonne National Laboratory in Washington DC.
He has held senior managerial positions at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Early in his career he managed environmental research projects in remediating of nuclear weapons testing areas, and disposal of highly radioactive materials. He also managed waste characterization and transportation programs for the Waste Isolation Pilot Project and served as principal technical advisor to the Director for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste.
He is a member of the National Academy of Science’s Nuclear and Radiation Sciences Board, holds leadership positions in the American Nuclear Society, and is the President Elect of the World Council on Isotopes. He serves as an advisor to the Japanese Government on the decommissioning of the Fukushima accident site.
Mr. Dickman received his M.S. in Natural Sciences in Nuclear Chemistry and Physics from the University of Wyoming, and his B.A. in History (of Science) from the University of Denver.
Last modified April 14, 2022, 5:54am PDT
