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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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.
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
Diane Leopold is executive vice president and chief operating officer for Dominion Energy. She is the senior executive responsible for all the company’s operating segments and related construction functions.
Leopold oversees: Dominion Energy Virginia, a vertically integrated electric utility with generation, transmission and distribution assets providing electric service to about 2.7 million customer accounts in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina; Dominion Energy South Carolina, a natural gas and electric utility serving 1.1 million customer accounts; and Contracted Energy, consisting of Millstone Power Station, dozens of solar generating facilities with long-term power purchase agreements in nine states, and a renewable natural gas business.
Leopold joined Dominion Energy in 1995 and became an officer in 2004. She held a wide range of executive roles in operational, financial, and commercial areas throughout the company. She became Dominion Energy’s executive vice president and co-chief operating officer in December 2019 and assumed her current role in October 2020.
In addition to being on the board of directors of Markel Corporation, she currently serves on various industry, non-profit and community boards. She is on the boards of the Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, GROW Capital Jobs Foundation, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and World Pediatric Project. Leopold serves on the executive committee, board and is past-chair of the American Gas Association and is past-chair of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.
Leopold graduated from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and electrical engineering. She received a master’s degree in electrical engineering (energy conversion, power, and transmission) in 1993 from George Washington University and an MBA in 1998 from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Last modified June 25, 2024, 3:43pm EDT