There’s a lot of chatter about the energy demands of artificial intelligence. As Iowa looks at inviting new data centers into the state, the usual suspects are dragging out the same old sawhorses to devise worn out solutions to meet this demand. One of the ideas floated was re-opening the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, Iowa, owned by NextEra Energy. That would be a bad idea.
Erin Jordan of the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported, “John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, which has owned Duane Arnold since 2005, told Bloomberg on June 12 he had inquiries from potential data center customers interested in the 600 megawatts generated by the Iowa reactor. ‘I would consider it, if it could be done safely and on budget,’ Ketchum said.”
The stickler here is “on budget.” When has refurbishing a nuclear power plant been done, one closed down after being damaged in the August 10, 2020 derecho, and four years into de-commissioning? I suspect zero is the number. How does one budget for that? What if they run into something unexpected? Who pays? NextEra would likely seek to be indemnified from unexpected costs.
In 2010 I wrote, “On December 16, 2010, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the license for the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, Iowa for an additional 20 years, extending the license to the year 2034.” The power plant would serve its normal term of 20 years, and the renewal followed a process to extend it by 20 more. How long can Duane Arnold’s life be extended? At some point, basic components, like concrete and rebar can show fatigue. Extending the life of Duane Arnold beyond 2034 would have been a dicey proposition. In fact, it was not viable and NextEra decided to shut it down early.
Iowa has been asleep at the wheel regarding nuclear power. During public hearings on the license extension, very few people made comments. I suspect people who engage about the value of nuclear power have their arguments. I would propose a completely different approach from letting companies like NextEra drive the locomotive toward supplying data center electricity.
In the first place, Bill Gates is supposed to be solving the problems that prevent society from moving forward with new nuclear power. He has a test site in Kemmerer, Wyoming using a small modular reactor, not old-style behemoths like Duane Arnold. Let Gates see if he can solve nuclear power’s problems and then do this thing right. That should play out before we look at re-opening Duane Arnold to run for less than a decade. I am skeptical Gates is actually doing much different, yet he invested time and resources to solve the problems.
Better yet, public utilities are supposed to be experts in providing electricity to users. Let them come up with their own solution beginning with a blank page. If a data center requires the electricity it takes to run a small city, let the utilities figure out how to do that. Will there be government money to pay for this boondoggle? I hope not and say let public utilities figure out how to finance it without government dollars.
I am weary of hearing about Duane Arnold. In my mind, the plant is shutting down, and that’s what they told the Gazette on the first approach for the recent article. Real solutions to our energy problems exist. More are being developed. It’s time we pursued the latest technology rather than hitching Duane Arnold up to the wagon for one more trip to market. We owe it to our future and our progeny to innovate. So we should.
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