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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.
General Chairs:
Massimiliano Fratoni (University of California – Berkeley)
Christopher Perfetti (University of New Mexico)
Assistant General Chairs:
Cenk Guler (Westinghouse)
Jason Hou (NCSU)
Technical Program Chairs:
Eva Davidson (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Brendan Kochunas (University of Michigan)
Luka Snoj (IJS)
Assistant Technical Program Chairs:
Abdalla Abou Jaoude (INL)
Go Chiba (Hokudai U.)
Paul Cosgrove (Cambridge U.)
Ser Gi Hong (Hanyang U.)
Mathieu Hursin (EPFL)
Koroush Shirvan (MIT)
Ishita Triveda (INL)
Emily Shemon (ANL)
Diversity Chair:
Alexis Maldonado (LANL)
Student Chair:
Tatiana Siaraferas (UC Berkeley)
Workshop Chair:
Rike Bostelmann (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
If you have a question or suggestion, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We are here to help! Please send us an email and someone will get back to you within 24 hours of your email.
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