By John Stang
NextEra Energy Resources plans to shut down Iowa’s sole nuclear power reactor in 2020, the latest in a series of announced shutdowns of atomic energy plants around the nation.
The 615-megawatt Duane Arnold Energy Center boiling-water reactor, about 10 miles outside of Cedar Rapids, has a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to operate through 2034 and a contract to provide Alliant Energy Corp. with electricity through 2025. However, NextEra and Alliant announced in a joint news release on July 27 they intend to end the contract near the end of 2020.
Alliant wants to shift to four NextEra wind power facilities capable of providing 340 megawatts and other renewable sources for electricity, the release said. Consequently, Alliant expects to save $300 million in costs over the next 21 years due to the planned shift. The Cedar Rapids Gazette quoted the company as saying wind power costs have dropped beneath nuclear power costs.
NextEra Energy Resources plans to invest about $650 million in existing and new renewable power sources across Iowa by 2020, including $250 million to repower the four wind facilities as part of these transactions, the news release said.
The companies said in their release the plant will begin a “multi-year decommissioning process” upon closure, but did not offer details on the approach to be used. They did not respond to requests for comment this week. The process will include moving all used reactor fuel into dry storage, the Gazette reported.
In the latest decommissioning funding status report for the plant, filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March 2017, there was a total of $444 million in the trust for Duane Arnold. Projected funds at shutdown were projected at over $738 million, though that was more than a year before the early closure announcement.
Alliant will pay $110 million in September 2020 to NextEra to end the contract early, the joint news release said. The two corporations submitted a request last week for approval of that early closure agreement by the Iowa Utilities Board.
The Duane Arnold Energy Center went on online in 1975. NextEra owns 70 percent of plant. The Des Moines-based Central Iowa Power Cooperative owns 20 percent and the Humboldt-based Corn Belt Power Cooperative owns 10 percent.
The NextEra facility joins a growing number of nuclear plants that have closed prematurely in recent years or are preparing to cease operations — 14, by industry’s count — in the face of economic challenges including low natural gas prices for power production. Exelon’s Oyster Creek facility in New Jersey is up next, set to close on Sept. 17.
