Say Goodbye to The Only Nuclear Power Plant in Iowa

The Duane Arnold Energy Center is the current location for the only nuclear power plant in Iowa and that plant is going solar.

It was created by Duane Arnold back in 1974 and has been connected with nuclear power in Iowa for the past 48 years. If I'm being completely honest, I don't exactly know how a nuclear powerplant works. I know it creates nuclear power but everything I've ever been taught about nuclear power, I learned from the HBO show, Chernobyl. This was a fantastic five episode show by the way.

How does nuclear power work? Watch this video to find out.

If you're a fan of the environment, you'll be happy with this news of the plant going solar.

Plans are now in place for the power plant to become a giant solar farm according to Electrek.

One Earth reports "emissions from new nuclear plants are 78 to 178 g-CO₂/kWh."

I don't really know what that means either but what do you do when you're in that situation? Google it. This is really just a fancy way of saying nuclear power plants emit anywhere from 9 to 37 times more than solar plants. The derecho back in 2020 caused damage to the nuclear reactor and instead of repairing the reactor, plant owners decided it needed to be shut down.

The Duane Arnold Energy Center will be the home of a 690-megawatt solar farm. This $700 million dollar investment project is on pace to be completed by 2023 according to Electrek

On a positive note, this project pushing forward is it will create around 300 construction jobs and $41.6 million in tax revenue. Duane Arnold told the Gazette back in 2019 "The facility, which employed nearly 600 people, no longer fit in Iowa's energy portfolio that increasingly consisted of wind and solar."