Duane Arnold Energy Center return to power operations: NRC restart review for NextEra Energy Duane Arnold, LLC — under review. Sourced dates and schedule.
Background: NRC reactor licensing process, explained · The ADVANCE Act, explained: what changed and where the NRC stands
Current state
| Type | Restart |
| Outcome | Under review |
| Applicant | NextEra Energy Duane Arnold, LLC |
| Facility | Duane Arnold Energy Center (Palo, Iowa) |
| Docket | 50-331 |
| Submitted | 2026-01-30 |
| Docketed (accepted for review) | 2026-03-09 |
| NRC planned schedule | — |
| NRC target date | 2028-01-29 |
| Final safety evaluation | — |
| Decision | — |
| Review time (docketed → decision) | — |
| Submitted → decision | — |
| NRC-reported review duration | — |
| NRC-reported resources vs estimate | — |
Review time is measured in average months from the date the NRC docketed the application to the decision. The NRC's own reported durations may measure to the final safety evaluation instead.
Notes
Shut down August 10, 2020 (derecho). Draft EA/FONSI issued July 30, 2026. The NRC target date is applicant-paced, so it should not be compared directly with NRC-paced review durations. Submitted: date = last part; first part (50.82 exemption) 2025-01-23. Environmental Report submitted November 10, 2025. Docketed: date = acceptance of last part. The letter's 'December 15, 2026' is a typo; NRC facility page shows the OL/TS LAR acceptance review dated 12/15/2025 (ML25352A174). Final safety evaluation: Not yet issued. Decision: Under review.
Timeline
- 2026-01-30 — Application received: “By letters dated January 23, 2025, November 20, 2025, December 17, 2025, and January 30, 2026, NextEra Energy Duane Arnold, LLC (NEDA, the licensee), submitted an exemption and three license amendment requests (LARs) to support resumption of power operations” (source)
- 2026-03-09 — Accepted for review (docketed): “By correspondence dated February 27, 2025, December 15, 2026, January 30, 2026, and March 9, 2026, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff notified you that your requests had been accepted for review” (source)
The timeline is append-only: corrections are added as new entries. See the NNN Data License Terms for reuse of the event history.
Also tracked
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- DOE closes $1.9B loan to restart NextEra's Duane Arnold plant 2026-09-09
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