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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.
Faith R. Beck, Yue Jin, Fan-Bill Cheung (Penn State), Stephen M. Bajorek, Kirk Tien, Chris L. Hoxie (NRC)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 739-750
In a large break loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in a pressurized water reactor (PWR), a break may occur on one of the cold legs. The emergency core cooling system (ECCS) must provide sufficient coolant to the core to remove decay heat and prevent the cladding from exceeding 1477.6 K. During reflood, flow to the core is most often gravity driven, resulting in an oscillatory delivery of coolant to the core. These oscillations are attributed to vapor generation in the core and the dynamic response of the downcomer water level. The amount of liquid entrained can be significant because in an accident scenario, the progress rate will be slowed and it can take longer to fully recover the core. Most reflood experiments have been conducted with constant forced reflood rates, and have not explored in detail the effects of oscillations on liquid entrainment and rod bundle heat transfer. The few studies that have been conducted for oscillating flows indicate enhanced entrainment of liquid at the quench front. At the NRC-PSU Rod Bundle Heat Transfer (RBHT) Test Facility, an electrically heated 7×7, 3.66m long rod bundle array has the capabilities to perform both constant and oscillatory forced flooding rate experiments. For varying oscillation periods and inlet subcoolings, these system parameters’ effect the liquid entrainment has been analyzed. Using a frequency analysis and signal processing technique, the percent liquid entrainment has been determined in one up- or down-stroke for oscillatory reflood. These findings, which are important to rod bundle heat transfer during reflood transients, have been explained based on the physics of the problem.