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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.
David Pickett, Yiming Pan (CNWRA), John Wise, Ricardo Torres, Darrell Dunn (NRC)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 410-413
To renew a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) specific license for an independent spent fuel storage installation or a certificate of compliance for a dry storage system, the applicant must conduct an aging management review (AMR) that evaluates the potential aging-related degradation of those structures, systems, and components (SSCs) determined to be within the scope of renewal. Any credible aging mechanisms and effects identified for important-to-safety SSCs must be addressed in either time-limited aging analyses (TLAAs), if applicable, or aging management programs (AMPs). To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the renewal process, the NRC is developing guidance for its staff in reviewing AMRs and AMPs—titled the Managing Aging Processes in Storage (MAPS) Report. The report generically evaluates potential aging mechanisms for storage system components, concluding whether or not the mechanisms could affect an important-to-safety function. Aging mechanisms are evaluated for (i) casks and internal components; (ii) neutron shielding; (iii) neutron poisons; (iv) concrete overpacks and support pads, and ceramic fiber insulation; and (v) spent fuel assemblies. The report provides aging management tables that identify the component-specific aging mechanisms and consequent effects that must be managed. Finally, the report describes example AMPs that include recommended prevention, mitigation, monitoring, and inspection activities.
