Can Aging U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Withstand More Extreme Weather?
APRIL 23, 2024
To reach its climate goals, the Biden administration aims to extend the lives of U.S. nuclear reactors. But a new report finds regulators have not studied whether increasingly extreme weather could threaten the safety or viability of power plants largely built in the 1970s and 1980s.
On August 10, 2020 a powerful derecho windstorm blasted the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Iowa. Up to 130 mile-per-hour winds caused a power outage and knocked over the 50-year-old plant’s wooden cooling towers, which triggered an automatic shutdown of the reactor and a switch to backup generators to power its cooling system. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) concluded the plant’s multiple layers of defense had avoided any risk of releasing radioactive material, but the reactor was never restarted. The plant had been slated to close, and its owner decided not to repair the damage.
