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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.
Shulan Xu, Björn Dverstorp, Maria Nordén (Swedish Radiation Safety Authority)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 98-104
Several countries consider geological repositories as the preferred option for the final management of spent nuclear fuel, due to their potential to provide isolation from the surface environment on very long timescales. In post-closure radiological assessments of geological disposal of radioactive waste, the complexity of the assessment may increase as the site investigation program produces more extensive site data. In addition, consideration of climate change and its impact on the future evolution of the site will add complexity to the assessment. With this paper the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) wants to describe the authority’s review of the dose assessment in a post-closure safety assessment for the license application for construction of a geological repository. And how SSM has tried to disseminate this experience internationally. Emphasizing the importance of explanatory power to gain confidence from authorities and the public.