NextEra CEO says he would 'consider' restarting Duane Arnold nuclear plant

Helen Arnold, daughter of Duane Arnold, in an April 17, 2015, photo, looks at the pool of water where spent fuel rods were stored at the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo. She was accompanied by the plant’s operations manager, Ray Wheaton. Duane Arnold, a power company executive, oversaw the construction and opening of the plant that bears his name and is Iowa’s only nuclear power plant. It was shut down in 2020. (The Gazette) — Helen Arnold, daughter of Duane Arnold, in an April 17, 2015 photo, looks at the pool of water where spent fuel rods were stored at the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo. She was accompanied by plant operations manager Ray Wheaton. Duane Arnold, a power company executive, oversaw the construction and opening of the plant that bears his name and is Iowa’s only nuclear power plant. It was closed in 2020. (The Gazette)

The owner of Iowa’s only nuclear power plant — which began the decommissioning process in 2020 — is reportedly considering restarting the plant to meet demand from data centers and other customers, according to its CEO.

Emergency managers in Linn and Johnson counties said they have heard nothing about resuming nuclear power generation at the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, which would be costly and require a federal authorization.

But a retired engineer said the plant had top ratings when it closed and, if restarted, could provide far more renewable energy than wind and solar projects.

“If you needed electricity, it would be easier to restart a nuclear plant than to build one from scratch,” said Steve Myres, of Palo, who retired in 2020 after 26 years at Duane Arnold, most recently as part of the Rapid Engineering Project. Response Team.

John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, which has owned Duane Arnold since 2005, told Bloomberg on June 12 that he had received inquiries from potential data center customers interested in the 600 megawatts generated by the Iowa reactor.

“I would consider that option, if it could be done safely and on budget,” Ketchum told Bloomberg.

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

An aerial view, looking southeast, shows the 500-acre Duane Arnold Energy Center, located north of Palo. (The Gazette)

The plant was scheduled to be decommissioned in October 2020 when Alliant, Duane Arnold’s largest customer, agreed to a $110 million buyout to end its power purchase agreement. When the August 2020 derecho caused external damage, NextEra agreed to begin the closure process early.

Data centers need power

But big tech companies want to secure power for the massive data centers springing up across the country, including in Iowa.

Google plans to build a $576 million data center in the Big Cedar Industrial Center along 76th Avenue SW and Edgewood Road SW in Cedar Rapids, less than 20 miles south of the plant. Duane Arnold. Meta has proposed an $800 million data center in Davenport. These proposals join other large data centers in Council Bluffs, Altoona, Waukee and West Des Moines.

Ketchum told Bloomberg that tech companies have asked NextEra to find locations that can meet 5 gigawatts of demand.

“Think about it. That’s the size of the city of Miami’s power supply,” Ketchum said. He declined to name the companies.

A General Electric generator, pictured April 8, 2019, produces electricity from the nuclear-powered steam turbine at the NextEra Energy Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo. The reactor closed the following year after the 2020 derecho. (Jim Slosiarek/La Gazette)

Ketchum said 5 gigawatts would be a challenge, but there are places in the United States that can provide a gigawatt of power. The Bloomberg article didn’t mention which communities, but Linn County likely would have been one before Duane Arnold was decommissioned.

When The Gazette contacted NextEra to ask about Ketchum’s comments, the Florida-based company said Duane Arnold was being shut down.

“NextEra Energy Resources is always listening to the needs of our customers and the best use of our assets, including the Duane Arnold Energy Center,” spokesman Bill Orlove said in an email. “The company has not completed a formal study on the feasibility of restarting operations at Duane Arnold.”

A decommissioning plan released in 2022 — which Orlove shared last week with The Gazette — indicates the plant has ceased operations and its spent fuel has been moved to a storage area on the property. The plan calls for the buildings to be demolished “within 60 years” to give the remaining radioactivity time to decay.

How big is a gigawatt?

Renewable energy projects are often measured in megawatts, or 1 million watts of energy. One gigawatt equals 1 billion watts, or 1,000 megawatts. If you need a more visual example of a gigawatt, here are some from the US Department of Energy:

2.47 million solar panels
310 large-scale wind turbines
100 million LED bulbs
Approximately 1.3 million horsepower (based on wattage conversion: 746 watts = 1 horsepower)
2,000 Chevrolet Corvette Z06s (the Corvette Z06 engine produces 670 horsepower. Two thousand of these engines would be equivalent to 1.34 million horsepower, or 1 GW)
9,090 Nissan Leaf (The Leaf has a 110 kilowatt engine. So 1 million kW divided by 110 kW = the maximum power of 9,090 Nissan Leaf)

Michigan nuclear power plant restarts

The U.S. Department of Energy announced in March that it would lend up to $1.5 billion to a Michigan company to restart the 800-megawatt Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, a plant in western Michigan that shut down operations in May 2022.

The money would allow Holtec Palisades to upgrade and test the plant in order to operate it for another 25 years.

“The project also highlights President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to support good-paying, high-quality job opportunities in communities across the country while expanding access to energy resources clean and affordable,” the Department of Energy reported.

What about Duane Arnold?

Myres, the former Duane Arnold engineer, said he would like to see the same thing done at Duane Arnold.

“When that plant was closed, there was no problem with it,” he said.

Fuel from the boiling water nuclear reactor was stored in the spent fuel pool next to the reactor vessel at the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo in an April 8, 2019 photo. The transfer of new and spent fuel assemblies to and from the reactor vessel was done underwater. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

He believes NextEra should “absolutely” consider restarting the plant because of the growing demand for energy. He compared powering the grid to riding a bicycle, where all the energy providers work together to meet the energy needs of homeowners, governments and businesses.

“When the load increases, like in a data center, the bike starts to slow down and someone has to pump harder,” he said. “What’s going to happen here if we don’t get enough power is they’re going to have to drop some load.”

Obtaining a new license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a complex and expensive process, said Steve Guyer, energy policy advisor with the Iowa Environmental Council. Not only would NextEra have to prove that the facility is up to scratch, but there would also have to be adequate transmission capacity.

NextEra has used some of the transmission lines near the plant for the 200 megawatts of solar the company is building, Guyer said.

Congress earlier this month approved a bill aimed at accelerating the deployment of nuclear capacity, including by streamlining the permitting process and providing incentives for small nuclear reactors.

Emergency management

Because an accident at a nuclear power plant can have devastating consequences, facilities – including Duane Arnold – have multiple levels of security and detailed safety plans for people living nearby.

NextEra in 2022 donated 144 emergency sirens within a 10-mile radius of the plant to Linn County. These siren systems were once the primary way to warn neighbors of potential danger, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission now allows telephone alerts as a first warning.

BJ Dvorak, coordinator for the Linn County Emergency Management Agency, said he hasn’t heard of NextEra considering relaunching Duane Arnold. Dave Wilson, Johnson County EMA coordinator, hasn’t heard of it either.

“We have not received any communication from NextEra regarding the possibility of restarting the power plant,” Wilson said. For years, Johnson County has been listed as a host county to accommodate people displaced by a possible nuclear incident, making it even more likely that Johnson County will hear about any plans to revive the plant, he said. -he declares.

A phone introduced in 2019 connects directly to the Linn County Emergency Management Agency's Duane Arnold Energy Center in Cedar Rapids. (The Gazette) — A phone introduced in 2019 connects directly to the Linn County Emergency Management Agency’s Duane Arnold Energy Center in Cedar Rapids. (The Gazette)

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