NextEra to submit environmental review to nuclear regulators this fall, stepping closer to Duane Arnold restart

NextEra Energy, which said last year it is exploring restarting the shuttered Duane Arnold Energy Center nuclear power plant near Palo, will submit an environmental report to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by this fall.

During a pre-submittal meeting Thursday, the NRC’s Project Manager Kimberly Conway said that once the plant’s owner, NextEra Energy, submits its environmental report, the Commission will prepare an environmental assessment of its own regarding a restart of the facility.

Duane Arnold opened in 1974 under the ownership of what is now Alliant Energy. When the plant closed in 2020, it employed more than 500 people.

Now, NextEra Energy, which bought the plant in 2005, is seeking to reopen the facility by the end of 2028. The company filed a request with the NRC earlier this year to potentially restore the facility’s operating license. The move comes as demand for electricity balloons amid the construction of large data centers to support the growth of artificial intelligence. Two data centers are being built — by Google and QTS — in southwest Cedar Rapids.

Several permits needed before plant can be restarted

Kaitlyn Watkins, principal environmental specialist with NextEra Energy said there are five major permits needed for the Duane Arnold plant to restart.

One, she said, is a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System wastewater permit from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The plant’s permit was last renewed by the Iowa DNR in 2022 and expires in 2032.

“The permit supports the restart activities and resumption of power operation, and it allows the site to withdraw water from water supply wells and the Cedar River,” Watkins said.

She said a permit from Linn County for “minor air operating” is needed as well.

“Our minor air operating permits are currently inactive for the boiler and emergency generators, but we are planning to apply for the Linn County construction and operating permits as they are needed,” she said.

Watkins said the other three permits NextEra must obtain to restart the facility include a water use permit, a permit for a hazardous waste generator, and a radioactive material license.

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Restarting the plant will require some ‘major pieces of equipment’

During Thursday’s meeting, Mike Davis, licensing project manager with NextEra Energy, said that all of the plant’s spent fuel from its past operations has been transferred to NextEra’s independent spent fuel storage.

“Our spent fuel pool has been refilled with water, but no fuel is on site in the power block proper,” Davis said. “Our generator output transformer was removed, and the transmission lines have also been removed. The main power block buildings, as I stated, remain intact.”

Davis said the plant’s major systems have been “drained and de-energized.”

If the facility is to be restarted, Davis said some restoration work will be needed, including installing “a few major pieces of equipment” like cooling towers, the restoration of transmission lines, new offices, warehouse buildings and a new sewage treatment system.

The plant’s property spans about 500 acres and sits along the west bank of the Cedar River.

Davis said the plant was originally licensed through 2014 but in 2010 NextEra was granted a renewal of the license. That renewal extended the facility's expiration date to 2034, which remains the current expiration date.

Environmental concerns spark questions

Wally Taylor, legal chair for the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter, told NextEra representatives and the NRC that the additional waste from the facility, if it does restart, needs to be considered.

“If Duane Arnold does restart, that's going to make even more waste,” he said.

Taylor asked where the power will go if Duane Arnold restarts — whether it will go to Iowa’s electric grid or to a specific customer. He also asked both groups if there is any financial support from the state or the federal government to aid the restart.

The Commission did not answer Taylor’s questions, but said the NRC’s subject matter experts “will consider” his points as they prepare their environmental review document.

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com