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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.
Dr. Larry R. Foulke has been a member of the American Nuclear Society since 1967. He is currently an adjunct full professor who has an earned doctorate in nuclear engineering, PE registration (nuclear) in the State of Pennsylvania, and extensive experience in nuclear science and technology from a 40-year career in the nuclear industry.
Dr. Foulke has held many ANS leadership positions including Chair of the Accreditation Policies and Procedures Committee, Public Policy Committee and PE Exam Committee.
In 2006, Foulke retired from his career assignments at the U.S. Army Nuclear Power Field Office, Westinghouse Nuclear, and the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers coming out as Captain in 1968. Dr. Foulke has been active in the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) serving as Chair of the Technology Accreditation Commission in 1992-93, and member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission. He was made a Fellow of ABET in 1995.
Serving as the founder and director of the Nuclear Engineering Certificate Program at the University of Pittsburgh from 2006 to 2012, he created a series of courses in nuclear engineering for both undergraduate and graduate students. One course in particular entitled, “A Look at Nuclear Science and Technology” reached over 30,000 students in 179 countries in 2013 and 2014.
Dr. Foulke received his BS and MS in Nuclear Engineering from Kansas State University and his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from MIT. He served as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Oslo/Institute for Atomenergi in Norway in 1961-62. Recognized in 2003 by Kansas State University, he was as a Distinguished Member of the College of Engineering Hall of Fame. Dr. Foulke currently resides in Pleasant Hills, PA.
Read Nuclear News from July 2003 for more on Dr. Foulke.
