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NextEra Vitality is contemplating restarting a nuclear plant in Iowa as demand for carbon-free vitality grows amid a historic surge in electrical energy consumption.
The Duane Arnold Vitality Middle in Palo, Iowa ceased operations in 2020 after 45 years of service. NextEra CEO John Ketchum stated Wednesday a radical overview of the dangers is required to see if restarting the reactor is possible.
“There could be alternatives and numerous demand from the market if we had been in a position to do one thing with Duane Arnold,” Ketchum stated on NextEra’s second-quarter earnings name Wednesday.
“We’re taking a look at it,” he stated. “However we might solely do it if we might do it in a means that’s primarily danger free with loads of mitigants across the strategy. There are few issues we must work by way of.”
The Duane Arnold plant was scheduled for retirement in late 2020 after a key buyer, Alliant Vitality, sought cheaper vitality alternate options. The plant ceased operations two months sooner than anticipated after a derecho, a robust windstorm, broken some parts of the plant together with its cooling towers.
Nuclear vitality fell out of favor over the previous decade as vegetation struggled to compete with cheaper vitality sources corresponding to pure gasoline and renewables. The 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan additionally raised security considerations. A dozen nuclear reactors within the U.S. closed from 2013 by way of April 2021, based on the Congressional Analysis Service.
Rush for carbon-free vitality
However curiosity is rising in nuclear once more because the U.S. faces important wave of energy demand from synthetic intelligence information facilities, a renaissance of home manufacturing and the electrification of the economic system.
“The present nuclear vegetation are the most well liked factor in energy proper now,” Mark Nelson, founding father of Radiant Vitality Group, stated on CNBC’s “Final Name” in June. “They are going to have the ability to practically title their worth to construct out to information facilities which are parked proper at their gate.”
Electrical energy demand is rising on the identical time the U.S. is making an attempt slash carbon dioxide emissions by accelerating the buildout of renewable vitality. Photo voltaic and wind, nonetheless, nonetheless face challenges offering dependable energy on account of their dependence on climate situations.
Whereas CEOs within the renewable business imagine battery storage will in the end remedy that downside, utility executives have insisted that nuclear and pure gasoline are wanted to take care of grid reliability.
Southern Firm CEO Chris Womack stated final month that he thinks the U.S. wants to put in greater than 10 gigawatts of recent nuclear energy to satisfy electrical energy demand. Southern Firm, one of many largest utilities within the U.S., accomplished the primary new nuclear plant in many years final 12 months, although the mission completed not on time and over price range.
The push for brand new nuclear has additionally confronted criticism. AES Company CEO Andrés Gluski informed CNBC in June that the passion for nuclear is “overblown,” pointing to the prices related to constructing new vegetation.
The tech sector, nonetheless, has proven rising curiosity in nuclear as means to offer dependable energy for information facilities. Earlier this 12 months, Amazon Net Providers purchased an information heart powered by nuclear vitality from Talen Vitality for $650 million. The cloud service large can also be in talks with Constellation Vitality for electrical energy provided from a nuclear plant on the East Coast, individuals conversant in the matter not too long ago informed The Wall Avenue Journal.
The U.S. maintains the most important nuclear fleet on the planet with 94 working reactors. The Biden administration has supplied tax credit beneath landmark Inflation Discount Act to stop extra reactors from going offline. In December, the U.S. and a coalition of greater than 20 different nations pledged in December to triple nuclear energy by 2050 to deal with local weather change.
