Linn County authorities have paved the way for the possible reopening of the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Palo.
NextEra Energy hopes to have the 615-megawatt plant open in late 2028. Until then, the project needs the green light from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and multiple other regulatory agencies.
But Linn County supervisors have given NextEra the go-ahead for their part. The utility asked the county to rezone nearly 400 acres for nuclear energy production and waste storage.
“Linn County does not have the authority to make the final approval or disapproval, nor do we have the authority over nuclear waste,” said County Chair Kirsten Running-Marquardt. “But through this rezoning, this gives Linn County residents a seat at the table.”
Last week, the board signed a Host Community Agreement aimed at covering costs that could come from restarting the facility. NextEra agreed to make an annual payment for services related to hosting the plant — starting at $1.9 million and increasing by 5% each year to keep up with inflation.
Some members of the community have shared their reservations about reopening the plant. But all three of the county's supervisors said they are excited by the prospect of the plant reopening in the coming years.
“I think a lot of people have trepidation when we see this kind of explosion of AI and everything that’s related to it, whether it’s data centers or new generation, about the communities paying a price for that growth,” said Vice Chair Sami Scheetz in a meeting last week. “And I think what this agreement says to the residents of Linn County is we are not going to be paying the price for a company that’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars to come in and profit off of our community.”
Scheetz added that his support for the rezoning was partially conditional on NextEra paying its entire property tax bill and the fact that restarting the plant would not cause utility rates to increase for Linn County residents.
The board also approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for NextEra to reimburse the county for preoperational emergency management costs associated with the plant’s restart.
“We have also communicated about our Host Community Agreement. We passed our finalized MOU today, and both of those things are [putting the] considerations of the people of Linn County first,” Running-Marquardt said.
Many locals and union leaders have shared their support for the plant reopening, citing the 880 temporary construction jobs and 433 long-term jobs it's expected to create.
“I’ve been around the people that worked out there, lots of really great people who had good, well-paying jobs,” John Zakrasek, who worked at the plant for over a decade, said in a meeting last week. "Our electricity demand is really going up right now, and to think about refurbishing and reusing that massive infrastructure out there to produce over 600 megawatts of power, 24 hours a day is just fabulous to me.”
NextEra project developer Garrett Goldfinger has said restarting the plant would add $16 billion to the U.S. economy over its 25-year operating period. Of that, $9 billion would impact Iowa, with $8 billion staying in Linn County.
“We’ve had some retired employees come here and speak on what kind of community they built and their positive experiences at the facility, and it’s great to see that pass on to the next generation as well,” Goldfinger said.
NextEra currently shares partial ownership with the Central Iowa Power Cooperative and the Corn Belt Power Cooperative, which have both signed agreements to sell their combined 30% interest to NextEra.
In a separate agreement announced in October, NextEra agreed to supply Google with a majority of the plant’s energy output. The tech giant is building a data center in southwest Cedar Rapids and in May pledged a two-year, $7 billion investment in Iowa.
Google has also approached Linn County with a proposal to build a data center near Duane Arnold. The inquiry prompted a water balance study, paid for by Google, to determine whether the area could support the data center’s water needs. The county aims to release the study results in the spring.
