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Iowa Nuclear Industry |
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Report Updated:
August 18, 2006
Duane Arnold's boiling water reactor (BWR) is the only reactor in the State of Iowa. Permanently Shutdown Commercial Reactors: There are no retired reactors located in Iowa.
Nuclear Generation Electricity generation by nuclear power plants is available for each reactor and each State for the following years: Contribution of Nuclear Power As of January 1, 2005, Iowa ranked 30th among the 31 States with nuclear capacity. Iowa's utility industry is heavily dependent on coal. Iowa's power plant airborne emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and Nitrogen Oxides rank the in the upper half among the 50 States and District of Columbia. If the Duane Arnold Energy Center had not been built, a coal-fired power plant (or plants) would have been the most likely alternative. To understand Iowa's relationship to nuclear power, it is helpful to understand something about Iowa. A survey of 64,645 native Iowans by the Information Please Almanac revealed that the largest share of the workforce is in offices or vehicles: production, transportation, and material moving occupations (15.3 percent); sales and office occupations (30.2 percent), and the largest share is in management, professional, and related occupations (34.6 percent). So Iowa, like Illinois or New York or California, is a very business-oriented State. Only 0.2 percent of the population was in the category that included farming. The hard facts of energy economics in Iowa include sparse local fuel resources and tight budgets for developing them. The State government encourages and publicizes small scale renewable energy projects, but it appears unlikely that local renewable energy production will provide enough domestic electricity supply in the next decade to reach 10 percent of the total. So Iowa utilities, like those in most States, will face the challenge to keep the power on, and to keep prices and emissions as low as possible.
Iowa Nuclear Highlights
License Renewal The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) anticipates that Nuclear Management Company LLC will apply for license renewal of the Duane Arnold Energy Center in 2008, probably in late fall or during winter. Air Quality in Iowa Of the 50 States plus the District of Columbia, the electric industry of the State of Iowa ranks 23rd highest in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The State’s electric industry ranks 21st highest in sulfur oxide (SO2) emissions and 20th highest in nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions.
Useful Information on Other Web Sites General Information on Iowa (e.g., history, flag) Contact: |
see also:
annual nuclear statistics back to 1953
projected electricity capacity to 2025
international electricity statistics