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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
Marius Zamfirache, Anisia Bornea, Liviu Stefan, Ana George, Ovidiu Balteanu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 4 | May 2020 | Pages 488-493
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1718853
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies (ICSI Rm. Valcea) was established in 1970 as a research entity with the main goal of developing a heavy water production technology. One of the departments of the institute, entitled ICSI Nuclear, is oriented toward the development of a heavy water detritiation technology with the main beneficiary being the Cernavoda nuclear power plant. Thus, ICSI Nuclear has completed the technical project of the Cernavoda Tritium Removal Facility (CTRF). This paper focuses on the CTRF front end (water detritiation system) and will analyze achievement of the nominal regime at start-up and analysis of the transient regimes that may occur during normal operation and their impact on the water detritiation factor. Analysis results can become input for improvement of the CTRF control and instrumentation system, for subsequent operating facility procedures, and for verification of the isotopic exchange software models corresponding to these modes of operation.