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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.
Shutaro Takeda, Satoshi Ogawa, Masato Tabuchi, Yoshifumi Kume, Richard Pearson, Colin Baus, Satoshi Konishi, Kyoto Fusioneering UNITY Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 8 | November 2023 | Pages 1059-1064
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2176689
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the major research and development challenges on the critical path to achieving a fusion pilot plant is demonstrating the viability of power production from fusion. In August 2022, Kyoto Fusioneering launched the construction of the world’s first integrated testing facility for fusion power generation. The primary testing loop of the facility will initially adopt PbLi, with the prospect of adding an additional molten salt loop, with dimensions of around 5 × 5 × 3 m with a coolant inventory of approximately 100 L. To be completed in 2025, this facility will demonstrate (1) heat extraction from a mock-up blanket, (2) high-temperature heat transfer and exchange, (3) electricity generation from blanket heat, and (4) hydrogen isotope extraction under commercially relevant conditions—to be completed in time for the first-generation demonstration fusion plants. This facility is named UNITY, standing for Unique Integrated Testing facilitY to symbolize the integration of all critical components.