By James Kelley
Publication Date: 2026-04-23 17:04:00
The town of Palo is usually quiet.
It’s a 15 to 20 minute drive northwest from Cedar Rapids past miles of farm fields. Palo is what you might expect for a town of about 1,600. Rows of homes in newly minted subdivisions radiate outward from the city center, where there’s a garden center, a restaurant and a Casey’s gas station.
Residents say the gas station is sometimes out of gas.
Most Iowans know Palo for the Duane Arnold Energy Center — a boiling water nuclear reactor just outside of town that shut down in 2020 after 45 years of operation. Its tall stack is Palo’s lone skyscraper.
It’s viewable from Karen Banninger’s driveway. The house she lives in with her aging parents sits near the top of a small hill. Between the road in front of her house and the nuclear plant off in the distance, there are acres and acres of solar panels.
“I used to look at a cornfield across the road. That was great,” Banninger said. “That’s why…