Owner of nuclear power plant in Iowa working on its restart

The shut-down US nuclear power plant Duane Arnold could be restarted. The plant’s owner recently applied to the nuclear regulator for a license amendment. This is the first official step towards restarting the single-unit, 615 MW plant. The plant ceased operations in 2020 and, if the process is successful, could resume generating electricity at the end of 2028.

US company NextEra Energy announced as part of its 2024 results that it had taken the first official step towards restarting its Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Iowa. The plant’s owner said it had submitted an official application for a license amendment to the nuclear regulator (Nuclear Regulatory Commission). The plant, which generated electricity until 2020, has a boiling water reactor (BWR) with a capacity of 615 MW (gross).

“This is an important step in establishing a regulatory pathway to restore the plant’s operating licence and potentially restart it as early as the end of 2028,” NextEra Energy said.

Duane Arnold began operating in 1974 and exceeded its original 40-year lifespan by more than five years. Its original power generation licence was not due to expire until 2034. However, two events affected the date it was shut down. The first was Alliant Energy’s decision in 2018 to shorten its power purchase agreement for the plant by five years, with generation expected to end in October 2020. The second was a storm in August 2020 that damaged the unit’s cooling towers. The plant was shut down after the damage and never returned to operation.

NextEra Energy began actively considering a restart of the plant last year, and the latest developments build on an initial inspection and assessment of the condition of the unit’s equipment. A prerequisite for restarting the plant—which could ideally happen as early as the end of 2028—is the construction of new cooling towers.

Restarting nuclear units to meet the needs of artificial intelligence

In the US, this is not the first nuclear power plant whose owner is considering restoring operations after shutting it down. In Michigan, Holtec is already working to restart the Palisades nuclear power plant. The CEO of Constellation Energy has also spoken about plans to restore operations at Three Mile Island following an agreement with Microsoft.

Owners often cite growing electricity consumption as a reason for restoring nuclear generation. Electricity will be needed in particular to operate data centres and support artificial intelligence. At the same time, as coal-fired power plants are gradually phased out, the grid is beginning to lack stable sources that are independent of weather conditions.