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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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.
Technical Session|Fission Surface Power
Wednesday, May 7, 2025|3:15–4:55PM CDT|Atlantis/Discovery/Columbia (Marriott)
Session Chair:
Tyler Steiner (NASA Glenn Research Center)
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Robert Okojie (NASA Glenn Research Paper)
Track Organizer:
Harold Gerrish (Marshall Space Flight Center)
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SNAP-10A Experimental Criticality Benchmark Estimated By OpenMC Monte Carlo Code
3:15–3:40PM CDT
Zelong Zhao (CIAE), Gu Hu (CIAE)
Paper
Feasibility Assessment of Micro Molten Salt and Metal Reactor (MSMR) for Long Life Lunar Base Power
3:40–4:05PM CDT
Jaehyun Ryu (KAIST), Yonghee Kim (KAIST)
Multiphysics Modeling of SNAP 10A/2 Space Reactor with Cardinal
4:05–4:30PM CDT
Maximiliano Dalinger (Penn State), Elia Merzari (Penn State), Tri Nguyen (Penn State), Michael Seneca (Penn State), Richard Martineau (Sawtooth Simulation, LLC)
Optimization of the BISON UN Fission Gas Release and Swelling Model
4:30–4:55PM CDT
Zachary Miller (Univ. California, Berkeley), Massimiliano Fratoni (Univ. California, Berkeley), Alex Levinsky (LANL), Galen T. Craven (LANL), Christopher Matthews (LANL)
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