NextEra files with NRC for potential Duane Arnold restart

John Ketchum, NextEra’s chief executive, said on the company’s year-end earnings call last Friday that the company filed a licensing change request for Duane Arnold with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is the first step toward getting approval to restart the shuttered plant. Ketchum said if plans proceed, the unit could be recommissioned as soon as late 2028.

“There are only a few nuclear plants that can be recommissioned in the near term in an economic way,” he added. “We need electrons right now, and we need to unleash . . . the American energy industry and achieve dominance. . . . As part of achieving energy dominance, we’re going to need all-of-the-above solutions. We can’t afford to take any options off the table.”

NextEra is the latest utility to reconsider a reactor restart. Holtec is working to restore Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan, possibly by the end of this year; and Constellation is pushing to bring its Crane Clean Energy Center (formerly Three Mile Island-1) in Pennsylvania back on line.

A closer look: NextEra shut down Duane Arnold in Palo, Iowa, in October 2020, after ending its power purchase agreement with key customer Alliant Energy. The single-unit, 622-MWe reactor first came on line in 1975 and was licensed to operate until 2034, but the company closed the plant early due to cost-competitiveness issues in the energy market.

Ketchum said the plant is currently in good condition. The only damage ever sustained at Duane Arnold was to its cooling towers, on August 10, 2020, when derechos (intense, fast-moving windstorms) that also caused the plant to lose off-site power came through the region.

The plant was taken off line in the aftermath of storm, and NextEra decided to close it two months sooner than originally planned. But Ketchum said cooling tower reconstruction is “run of the mill” and should not pose any issues to restarting Duane Arnold.

“This is just one part of our broader efforts with regulators, government officials, potential customers, and other stakeholders,” Ketchum said of the plant restart potential. “We are encouraged by the positive responses we have received so far from all parties involved.”

Nuclear also has support from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R.), who announced in her annual Condition of the State address earlier this month the creation of a nuclear energy task force to “make recommendations for how we can move forward with nuclear energy.”

New technology: NextEra is interested in small modular reactors, too, Ketchum said. The company has a whole division focused on studying SMRs and determining viability.

“We’d love to be able to develop them,” Ketchum said. “But as we get into them, there are some practical limitations.”

He categorized SMR deployment as more of a “next decade solution,” noting that it may take that long to see the units developed at scale and for a feasible price.