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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.
Z. Miles, A. Balodhi, T. Seuaciuc-Osorio, J. J. Wall, M. Guimaraes, A. Zevalkink, S. K. Chakrapani
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 8 | August 2024 | Pages 1279-1294
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2291602
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Grade 91 steel has been used in nuclear and fossil power plants since the 1970s. Manufacturing variabilities resulting from manufacturing, repair, and management activities have been attributed to lowered creep and fatigue life. This paper characterizes the elastic, thermal, and anelastic properties of P91 steel with different microstructures. Eight different microstructural conditions were identified as acceptable, gross, and gradual degradations. Ultrasonic testing was used to measure velocities, and resonant ultrasound spectroscopy was used to measure internal friction. The thermal diffusivity was measured along with Vicker’s hardness and grain size. A model for internal friction was used to combine the measured elastic and thermal properties. The results suggest that the current understanding of internal friction and its sources may be incomplete for complex microstructures like grade 91. From an nondestructive evaluation perspective, the results suggest that the internal friction has the highest sensitivity to microstructure changes, compared to elastic and thermal properties.