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NextEra starts process to reopen Duane Arnold nuclear plant
Demand from data centers drives possibility it’ll open by 2028
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The company that shuttered the only nuclear power plant in Iowa indicated Friday it might restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo by the end of 2028.
NextEra Energy Resources said it has filed a request with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to potentially restore the facility’s operating license as demand for electricity surges to power large data centers needed to handle the growth of artificial intelligence.
"We are in active discussions with customers today," John Ketchum, the chief executive of NextEra, said during an earnings call Friday. "There's a lot of interest in the plant as we look forward."
The 50-year-old facility, which NextEra has owned since 2005, was decommissioned in 2020 amid the rise of wind and solar energy production in Iowa. In comparison with other nuclear facilities, Duane Arnold was on the small side — about 600 megawatts.
Its shuttering was hastened by a derecho that year that damaged parts of the plant and cut electricity to the facility from outside sources for about 25 hours. The plant safely shut down using electricity from backup generators at the site, despite damage to the generators' cooling system from the storm, according to an analysis by the federal commission.
The storm's wind gusts of up to 140 mph severely damaged the facility's cooling towers and caused minor damage to its reactor, turbine and the buildings that protect its emergency equipment, the analysis noted.
Despite that, the facility "is really in good shape," Ketchum said.
"The only damage that we ever sustained at Duane Arnold was the derecho that took down the cooling tower," he said. "But building a cooling tower is run-of-the-mill."
Renewed interest
NextEra had planned to permanently close Duane Arnold, according to information on its website about the decommissioning. The Florida company said buildings at the site would be demolished in the coming decades after their radioactivity diminished and spent fuel would be stored in a nearby facility.
But power-hungry data centers — including two proposed in southwest Cedar Rapids in the Big Cedar Industrial Center — have renewed some demand for nuclear power, most often for recently decommissioned sites such as Duane Arnold.
"There are only a few nuclear plants that can be recommissioned in the near term in an economic way," Ketchum said.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said recently she will create a task force to evaluate the future of nuclear energy for Iowa.
"Its potential is amazing, but the investment is big and the horizon is long," she said earlier this month in her Condition of the State address to lawmakers. She noted that one of the things the task force would look into is workforce issues, as “recruiting nuclear engineers doesn’t happen overnight,” she said.
The Duane Arnold nuclear plant opened in 1974 under ownership of what is now Alliant Energy. It employed over 500 people when it closed in August 2020. The company told The Gazette in 2019 that a staff of about 50 would remain to monitor the shuttered plant.
Nuclear reactors do not emit air pollution or carbon dioxide like coal plants, but they produce radioactive waste.
The Sierra Club of Iowa prefers solar panels and wind turbines for energy generation and more than a decade ago sought to block Duane Arnold's license extension request, when it was still operating.
The group was concerned about storage of radioactive waste, the potential for water pollution and plant safety.
Comments: (319) 368-8541; jared.strong@thegazette.com
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