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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.
Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference 2024 (PBNC)
Dr. Michael Goff is the Acting Assistant Secretary and the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Prior to joining the office as the PDAS, Dr. Goff was on assignment from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to the Office of Nuclear Energy, where he was serving his third term as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary. Dr. Goff also served a multi-year assignment as the Assistant Director for Nuclear Energy/Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. He has held several management and research positions over more than 30 years at INL and Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Goff has more than 70 publications related to the nuclear fuel cycle including separations technology, high-level waste development, and safeguards. Dr. Goff has a Bachelor of Nuclear Engineering (1986), a MSNE (1988), and a PhD in Nuclear Engineering (1991), all from Georgia Tech.
Last modified August 7, 2024, 7:07am MDT
