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Getting back to yes: A local perspective on decommissioning, restart, and responsibility
For 45 years, Duane Arnold Energy Center operated in Linn County, Ia., near the town of Palo and just northwest of Cedar Rapids. The facility, owned by NextEra Energy, was the only nuclear power plant in the state.
In August 2020, a historic derecho swept across eastern Iowa with winds approaching 140 miles per hour. Damage to the plant’s cooling towers accelerated a shutdown that had already been planned, and the facility entered decommissioning soon after, with its fuel removed in October of that year. Iowa’s only nuclear plant had gone off line.
Today the national energy landscape looks very different than it did just six short years ago. Electricity demand is rising rapidly as data centers, artificial intelligence infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and electrification expand across the country. Reliable, carbon-free baseload power has become increasingly valuable. In that context, Linn County has approved the rezoning necessary to support the recommissioning and restart of Duane Arnold and is actively supporting NextEra’s efforts to secure the remaining state and federal approvals.
Thomas Leadbeater, Andy Buffler, Michael van Heerden, Ameerah Camroodien, Deon Steyn
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 121-137
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2171234
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT) is a radioactive tracer-based approach to studying dynamic physical processes and multiphase flows. Short-lived positron-emitting isotopes are loaded onto suitable substrates used as tracer particle flow followers in physical and engineering-relevant systems. Coincident photons from electron-positron annihilation are detected using large arrays of pixelated scintillators, with the reconstructed photon trajectories collectively used to determine tracer particle dynamics. We have developed indirect radiochemical, and direct physical activation, techniques for producing tracer particles for such studies, and we report on the current state of the art with focus on the direct approach with high-energy alpha-particle beams. The 16O(α,x)18F reactions have been explored as viable candidates in producing the pure positron emitter 18F from natural 16O-bearing targets. Silicon dioxide (SiO2) glass spheres of diameters of 5 to 10 mm were irradiated in a 100-MeV alpha-particle beam of around 800-nA current for approximately 2 h. Radioisotope activation yields were characterized by half-life measurements and gamma-ray spectroscopy, with the highest yield being 18F (<2.5 mCi). Contaminants from other reaction channels were observed and characterized, including the positron emitter 43Sc and negative beta emitter 24Na, produced from alpha and neutron activation of contaminant species in the target material, respectively. The activation technique is shown to be a reasonable candidate to complement and enhance existing tracer particle production techniques for PEPT and other radiotracer-based studies.
