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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.
Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS-2022) Plenary SPeaker
Propulsion and Nuclear Scientist,Defense Innovation Unit
NASA
Maj Ryan Weed is a physicist and USAF Experimental Test Pilot, logging over 2000 hours in more than 30 different aircraft. Ryan is a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Fellow, studying radioisotope positron propulsion systems. He has worked at Blue Origin, where he designed and implemented an Instrumentation laboratory for cryogenic rocket fuels, and founded Positron Dynamics, where he designed and built a positron beamline facility and developed high specific impulse propulsion concepts. Ryan earned a B.A in Physics from Wesleyan University, B.S. in Applied Physics from Columbia University, M.Sc. in Flight Test Engineering from Air University, and PhD in Physics from Australian National University. In his current role at DIU, Ryan manages the Nuclear Propulsion and Power program within the Space Portfolio.
Last modified April 5, 2022, 9:19am EDT
