NextEra considers restarting Iowa nuclear plant amid rising demand for carbon-free energy

NextEra Power 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 Power Heart in Palo, Iowa ceased operations in 2020 after 45 years of service. NextEra CEO John Ketchum mentioned Wednesday a radical evaluation of the dangers is required to see if restarting the reactor is possible.

“There can be alternatives and loads of demand from the market if we have been capable of do one thing with Duane Arnold,” Ketchum mentioned on NextEra’s second-quarter earnings name Wednesday.

“We’re taking a look at it,” he mentioned. “However we might solely do it if we may do it in a manner that’s basically danger free with loads of mitigants across the strategy. There are few issues we must work by means of.”

The Duane Arnold plant was scheduled for retirement in late 2020 after a key buyer, Alliant Power, 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 crops struggled to compete with cheaper vitality sources akin 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 means of April 2021, based on the Congressional Analysis Service.

However curiosity is rising in nuclear once more because the U.S. faces vital wave of energy demand from synthetic intelligence knowledge facilities, a renaissance of home manufacturing and the electrification of the economic system.

“The present nuclear crops are the most well liked factor in energy proper now,” Mark Nelson, founding father of Radiant Power Group, mentioned on CNBC’s “Final Name” in June. “They are going to have the ability to practically title their worth to construct out to knowledge facilities which might be parked proper at their gate.”

Electrical energy demand is rising on the similar time the U.S. is attempting slash carbon dioxide emissions by accelerating the buildout of renewable vitality. Photo voltaic and wind, nevertheless, nonetheless face challenges offering dependable energy as a result of their dependence on climate circumstances.

Whereas CEOs within the renewable trade imagine battery storage will finally clear up that downside, utility executives have insisted that nuclear and pure gasoline are wanted to keep up grid reliability.

Southern Firm CEO Chris Womack mentioned final month that he thinks the U.S. wants to put in greater than 10 gigawatts of latest 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 yr, although the challenge completed delayed and over funds.

The push for brand spanking new nuclear has additionally confronted criticism. AES Company CEO Andrés Gluski advised CNBC in June that the keenness for nuclear is “overblown,” pointing to the prices related to constructing new crops.

The tech sector, nevertheless, has proven rising curiosity in nuclear as manner to supply dependable energy for knowledge facilities. Earlier this yr, Amazon Net Companies purchased an information middle powered by nuclear vitality from Talen Power for $650 million. The cloud service large can also be in talks with Constellation Power for electrical energy equipped from a nuclear plant on the East Coast, folks conversant in the matter lately advised The Wall Avenue Journal.

The U.S. maintains the biggest nuclear fleet on the earth with 94 working reactors. The Biden administration has supplied tax credit beneath landmark Inflation Discount Act to forestall 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 handle local weather change.