An environmental advocacy group is supporting early steps in the potential restart of the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, though the Natural Resources Defense Council has never before backed the reopening of a nuclear plant.
Kit Kennedy, one author of the council’s 12-page statement, says as the needs increase for more electricity, the group wants to minimize other forms of power generation.
Kennedy says, “With electricity demand growing, we want to make sure that any data centers, in Iowa or anywhere, aren’t powered by coal-fired generation or by gas generation.”
The group supports the ownership consolidation plan for Duane Arnold, though it’s not meant to be taken as a broader statement about the group’s position on nuclear power or data center development.
Kennedy, the council’s managing director of power, climate and energy, says Duane Arnold is a safer option than alternative power generators.
“We wanted to kind of engage in this process early, and lay down some markers about what we thought the potential benefits of reopening the reactor could be, and the safety concerns that are really important.”
Kennedy says the NRDC’s goal is to participate in the federal regulatory process and steer things in the right direction.
She says the group’s comment is not meant to be taken as support of the plant’s restart overall, just the ownership consolidation plan.
