Fukushima 10 years later: It still could happen here

NRC file photo of the Duane Arnold GE BWR Mark IAn article by Dr. Edwin Lyman of Union of Concerned Scientists, published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Initially, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had declined to take a closer look at the risks of a core meltdown at Duane Arnold atomic reactor in Iowa (photo, left), severely damaged by a derecho in August 2020. (Duane Arnold never recovered, but instead announced permanent shutdown.) But an NRC staffer dissented, forcing the agency to take that harder look.

Update on March 17, 2021 by admin

Lyman has tweeted the following:

The @NRCgov has released the final risk analysis of the derecho that struck the Duane Arnold #nuclear plant in #Iowa in August 2020 and caused a loss of offsite power. The mean risk of core damage was 1/1250, but without FLEX credit was nearly 1 percent. https://nrc.gov/docs/ML2105/ML

As Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, has put it, "This was a close call."

Update on March 18, 2021 by admin

Good thing radioactive catastrophe was narrowly averted at Duane Arnold last August, or else the site would be too contaminated for workers to safely install solar panels there!

SOLAR:
• NextEra Energy unveils plans for a 690 MW, $700 million solar project at a decommissioned nuclear plant in Iowa. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)