CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The next step to bring nuclear energy back to Iowa happened Tuesday night – with a team from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting with community members regarding their review of Duane Arnold Energy Center.
The NRC team spoke about oversight, licensing, the environment and emergency preparedness – all of which are focuses of their restart review.
They said the commission is already working on the environmental review and have performed some inspections on equipment like the reaction vessel. Two inspection reports have been published and the team said two more are expected in 2026.
If the plant continues to pass inspections as activity ramps up, member of the restart team April Nguyen said she thinks they could approve the license in January 2028.
The plant would serve the proposed Google data center as owner NextEra Energy has signed a 25-year agreement with Google.
NextEra is planning to work toward a twenty-year extension for the plant as well, because even if the license is approved, it would only be valid until 2034.
According to NextEra, Duane Arnold Energy Center is anticipated to restart operations in early 2029.
Hipo Gonzalez, the acting deputy director of the Division of Operating Reactor Safety, emphasized the numerous evaluations that come before a decision.
“Our mission in the NRC is safety,” he said. “We are going to do this review of all the information provided by the licensee in a safe and secure manner.”
Some former Duane Arnold employees, team members from Iowa’s congressional delegation, and local politicians were in attendance.
During public comment, one member of the public questioned if the NRC would be more inclined to approve the license due to an executive order from President Trump in May 2025 pushing for reform to facilitate more development of nuclear power.
The team clarified that the inspection process will not change.
“Fundamentally we want to make sure that all the systems and components that prevent accidents from happening, that would mitigate those potential accidents and those barriers between the plant and the public are still intact,” said Nguyen. “So we’re going to be using the resources that we need to ensure that the plant would operate safely if it does get to the state of operation.”
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