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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.
Steven Nesbit (Duke Energy), David Blee (U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council), Edward Davis (Pegasus Group), Alexander Hoppes (Areva)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 884-888
In 2016 the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council’s (USNIC) Backend Working Group issued recommendations for breaking the nuclear waste management impasse. USNIC advocates a comprehensive, durable approach that includes the following elements:
• Complete the Yucca Mountain Repository Project license application process and re-establish a dedicated Department of Energy (DOE) organization for nuclear waste management.
• Pursue options for consolidated interim storage. Private sector solutions should be encouraged, and first priority should be given to used fuel currently residing at sites with no operating reactor.
• Assure shared value for host communities. The federal government should provide the necessary resources for impact assistance, along with incentives that support the long-term mission of the site and its value to the host community.
• Implement management and funding reform. This action should begin with the establishment of a separate, politically independent but accountable federal corporation-type organization. In addition, the Nuclear Waste Fund must be restructured so the new management entity has access to both the fund’s assets and annual receipts, subject to appropriate congressional oversight.
• Prepare for transportation of used fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Near-term work should focus on assuring the availability of necessary infrastructure and capabilities to move used fuel and high-level waste to consolidated storage facilities and repositories.
• Enhance research, development and demonstration. Continued work must enable advanced reactor and backend technologies that offer the promise of improved economics, enhanced safety, improved utilization of energy resources and optimization of waste management and disposal.
