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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|Space Nuclear Propulsion
Tuesday, May 6, 2025|1:00–2:40PM CDT|SPOC B (Space & Rocket Center)
Session Chair:
Joel Krakower (NASA Glenn Research Center)
Track Organizer:
Harold Gerrish (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
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Initial Atmospheric Results for Simulating a Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine
1:00–1:25PM CDT
Timothy Blackman (Univ. Alabama, Hunstville), Julia Kondrat'yev (Univ. Alabama, Huntsville), Olivia Williams (Univ. Alabama, Huntsville), Robert Frederick (Univ. Alabama, Huntsville), L. Dale Thomas (Univ. Alabama, Huntsville)
Paper
Preliminary Results of a Multiphase Flow Heat Transfer Experiment for a Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Rocket
1:25–1:50PM CDT
Ines de Villarreal (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center), Bandar Alrugebh (Drexel Univ.), Theodore Van de Water (Drexel Univ.), Vincent Angeline (Drexel Univ.), Amine Mrad (Drexel Univ.), Mikin Patel (Drexel Univ.), Augustin Demonceaux (Amentum Space Exploration Group), Kylie Braunhardt (New Mexico State), Joel Krakower (NASA Glenn Research Center)
Progress on Developing a Prototypic Centrifugal Fuel Element Test Stand for CNTP Engine
1:50–2:15PM CDT
Spencer Christian (Ohio State), Calvin Chandler (Ohio State), Joshua Naudet (Ohio State), Rahul Ravishankar (Ohio State), Zachary Smith (Ohio State), Hao Yu (Ohio State), Will Fink (Ohio State), Ryan Halloran (Ohio State), Zain Hamid (Ohio State), Luke Horne (Ohio State), Matthew Kogler (Ohio State), Huangcheng Yu (Ohio State), John M. Horack (Ohio State)
Mitigating Liquid Over-Compressibility in Liquid-Gas Models for Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Systems
2:15–2:40PM CDT
Pongkrit Darakorn Na Ayuthya (Univ. Alabama, Hunstville), Jason Cassibry (Univ. Alabama, Hunstville)
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