'Derecho' storm causes Cargill plant closure, emergency shutdown of nuclear plant in Iowa

There is a misconception that nuclear (and coal) plants have inherently superior reliability than other generation sources.  Coal plants and their transportation links can fail in bad weather, including very cold weather.  A nuclear plant must go offline if it loses redundant access to grid power, which is what happened in this case.  There is no obvious reason to believe that a coal or nuclear plant is any more reliable than, for example, a natural gas plant with firm transportation and/or fuel oil backup.