US utility NextEra Energy is in discussion with regional grid operators and has filed notice with federal regulators about a possible restart of its Duane Arnold NPP in Iowa. NextEra CEO John Ketchum in an earnings call said recommissioning the 600 MWe Duane Arnold plant would be a relatively speedy option for meeting the nation’s rapidly growing energy demand, which he said is expected to climb “80% over the next five years and six-fold over the next 20 years”.
“There are only a few nuclear plants that can be recommissioned in the-near term in an economic way,” Ketchum added NextEra Energy Resources filed notice with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that it will request a licensing change at Duane Arnold, “an important first step in establishing the regulatory pathway to restore the facility’s operating licence and potentially restart plant operations as early as the end of 2028,” he noted.
“While this is just one part of our broader efforts with regulators, government officials, potential customers and other stakeholders, we’re encouraged by the positive response we’ve received so far,” he said.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds recently signed an executive order establishing a task force to make recommendations about moving forward with nuclear energy, in order to keep up with the growing energy demand from Iowa data centres that power artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. Iowa has become a data centre hub. Since 2007, companies including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple have invested $12.3bn in large data centre projects in Iowa, which gets 60% of its energy from wind, the largest share of any state.
Duane Arnold’s single-unit 615 MWe boiling water reactor plant was scheduled for retirement in late 2020 after a major customer, Alliant Energy, looked to cheaper energy alternatives. The plant ceased operating two months earlier than expected after a powerful windstorm, damaged some parts of the plant, including its cooling towers. All the fuel has been removed from the reactor to an on-site dry storage facility. However, the facility placed into safe storage and the buildings are not scheduled to be demolished for 50 years.
The plant would likely also feed power to data centres, Ketchum said, though no contracts have been signed. The facility has undergone an initial engineering assessment, which found the plant’s reactor to be in good condition, while the rest of the plant could be restored to operations by late 2028. As well as the cooling towers, there is also work to be done on transmission, and equipment for the site has not been ordered, he said. Rebuilding the towers is “run of the mill”, he noted. “You build them at gas plants. You build them at nuclear facilities as well. That’s pretty conventional construction” with “not a whole lot of risk”.
Ketchum added that growing US energy needs are going to need “all-of-the-above solutions” including energy storage. “We can’t afford to take any options off the table. We’re going to need gas, we’re going to need nuclear, we’re going to need renewables,” he said. “But we can’t wait, because that demand is here today,” he said, comparing the technologies driving rising energy demand to “the industrial revolution”.
Two near-term milestones on potentially restarting Duane Arnold include a detailed analysis and inventory of the site’s condition and securing a customer to buy power from the site, he said. He declined to say how much it would cost to restart Duane Arnold, adding that NextEra has “more work to do”, including holding discussions with potential energy customers. “I’m not going to put a cost estimate out there that would hurt our negotiating position,” he added. “Today, there’s a lot of interest in the plant as we look forward.”
Duane Arnold would be one of three closed US plants in the process of moving towards restart. Maryland-based Constellation Energy’s Three Mile Island (TMI) NPP in Pennsylvania, now renamed Crane Clean Energy Centre, has secured a power purchase agreement to deliver power from the plant for Microsoft data centres. Constellation Energy plans to restart an undamaged reactor at TMI, the site in 1979 of the largest nuclear meltdown in US history. It would provide 835 MWe to serve Microsoft Corp’s data centre energy needs over the next two decades. Recommissioning TMI is expected to cost $1.6bn, Constellation estimates.
Holtec International said in September that progress continues at the Palisades NPP in Michigan where restart remains on schedule. The single-unit 800 MWe pressurised water reactor began commercial operation in 1971. Operator Entergy announced in 2016 plans to close the plant. In 2021 the NRC approved transfer of the licence from Entergy to Holtec in preparation for its decommissioning. The reactor was removed from service by Entergy in May 2022, and defueled, and its sale to Holtec completed in June 2022. However, Holtec then announced that it was applying for federal funding to allow restart of the plant. The US Administration in September announced the closing of a loan guarantee of up to $1.52bn to Holtec Palisades to help finance the restoration of the NPP. In addition, South Carolina utility Santee Cooper is seeking bids to restart construction of two reactors at its VC Summer Nuclear Station.
