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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.
1:00–2:45PM MDT
Room 3|Advanced Reactors
Session Chair: Piyush Sabharwall
Room 4|Fusion
Session Chair: Chase N. Taylor
Room 5|Lightning Talks
Session Chair: Dawn M. Scates
Room 1|Net Zero Nuclear
Session Chair: Jhansi Kandasamy
3:15–5:00PM MDT
Room 4|Advanced Reactors
Session Chair: James A. King
Session Chair: Trishelle Marie Copeland-Johnson
Room 1|Modeling and Simulation
Session Chair: Taek K. Kim
Panel|Room 3|Panels
Session Chair: Mackenzie L. Gorham
Panel|Room 3|Fuel Cycle|Panels
Session Chair: Pierre-Clement A. Simon
Session Chair: Ling Zou
Session Chair: Ahmad Y. Al Rashdan
Room 4|Nuclear Energy Justice
Session Chair: Mustafa Mashal
Room 3|Fuel Cycle
Session Chair: Kenneth C. Marsden
Session Chair: Emily A. Nichols
Session Chair: Kevin Han
Room 4|Safety, Security, and Regulatory Compliance
Session Chair: Chandrakanth Bolisetti
8:00–9:45AM MDT
Room 1|Economics
Session Chair: Nicolas E. Stauff
Session Chair: Abdul Dulloo
Panel|Room 3|Panels|Modeling and Simulation
Session Chair: George Mesina|Alternate Chair: Robert Kile
Session Chair: Marissa G. Bailey
10:15AM–12:00PM MDT
Room 4|Emerging Topics
Session Chair: Simon M. Pimblott
Room 1|Lightning Talks
Session Chair: Thomas Folk
Session Chair: Michael J. Moorehead
