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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.
Vishal Patel (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Ethan Chaleff (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Jenny Gaebel (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Morgan Gulliver (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Brian Ade (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Caen Ang (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Tanek Ballachanda (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Tom Crotzer (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Jesse Dumas (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Michael Eades (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Andrew Falkowski (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Neal Gaffin (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Marcus Gage (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Gavin Garside (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Cristian Garza (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Doug Greisen (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Tom Hinklin (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Nolan MacDonald (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Andrew Minter (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Sara Pelka (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Aaron She (Ultra Safe Nuclear), Paolo Venneri (Ultra Safe Nuclear)
Proceedings | Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS 2024) | Santa Fe, NM, May 6-10, 2024 | Pages 359-364
