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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.
Gregory Mathieu, Amélie de Hoyos, (Inst de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire), Sitakanta Mohanty, Stuart Stothoff, Michael Muller (CNWRA)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 380-388
Simulations that combine flow modeling with radionuclide transport modeling provide insights into the performance of a hypothetical geologic repository for radioactive waste. Key parameters driving performance can be identified and quantified using probabilistic sampling of the model parameters. This paper presents a probabilistic framework, referred to as the MC-MELODIE hydrologic flow and contaminant transport model, for analyzing flow and transport behavior in the context of intermediate level long-lived (ILLLW) and high-level (HLW) disposal in a deep geological formation at the Meuse/Haute-Marne (MHM) site in France. The flow and transport framework includes nested, but separate, simulations with common parameters in order to consider small-scale features (detailed drift and shaft configurations) within the repository formation while also considering large-scale (regional) release. Specific analyses use one-million-year simulations with a conservative tracer and assuming instantaneous failures and steady flow to examine the effect of repository layout on radionuclide transfer to the surrounding aquifers through the host formation and engineered features, and to illustrate how uncertainties in far-field conditions and potential future human activities may affect the fate of released radionuclides.