ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS-2022) Plenary SPeaker
Program Manager
Strategic Capabilities Office
Dr. Jeff Waksman is a Program Manager at the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) where he leads Project Pele (mobile nuclear reactor) and Project TRISO (encapsulated nuclear fuel). As part of this role, in addition to direct program management, he aids coordination on nuclear energy programs and related policy development across the interagency.
Before arriving at SCO, he worked for NASA as a Senior Policy Adviser, where he advised on policy and technical issues while also serving as the first Executive Secretary/Designed Federal Officer of the National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group.
Prior to his federal service, he worked in the private sector for IBM, where he was a staff scientist working on advanced semiconductor technology such as reactive ion etching, III-V materials, quantum computing, and heterogeneous integration. He also performed physics research prior to this at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and at the Princeton Plasma Physical Laboratory.
Dr. Jeff Waksman holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering and a Master of Science in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Physics from Columbia University.
Last modified April 25, 2022, 3:05pm EDT
