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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.
The tour starts at the Talbot Laboratory where the department of Nuclear Plasma and Radiological Engineering is located. Here, students will get to see the Virtual Education and Research Laboratory and learn how virtual reality technology can be adapted and applied to educational methods. After, they will walk across the Engineering Quad to the Center for Plasma-Material Interactions where students conduct experiments on the stellarator-tokamak, HIDRA. There are also many other historical artifacts on display for participants to see. Group 1 will depart from the iHotel at 9:00 am and return at 10:55 am. Group 2 will depart at 11:00 am ad return at 12:55 pm
Group 1: April 14th, 9:00-10:55 am
Group 2: April 14th, 11:00 am-12:55 pm
Starfire Industries is located at the south end of campus and works with federal organizations such as DARPA, Homeland Security, NASA, and others. They offer services in areas like neutron radiography, fabrication, and prototyping. Starfire’s collaboration with government agencies and propensity for solving big problems related to plasma engineering make them a great place to learn about plasma processing applications. The tour departs from I-Hotel at 9:50 am and arrives at the I-Hotel at 11:10 am
April 14th: 9:50-11:10 am
Located in Morris, IL. Dresden Nuclear Generating Station was the first commercial nuclear power plant in the United States. Dresden has two operating BWR reactors, Units 2 and 3, as well as the original “death star,” reactor Unit 1, that can be toured.
April 14th: 7:30am-4:30pm
Triptych brews beer on a modern 3-vessel, 15 barrel, steam-powered brew system capable of producing almost anything our brewers can dream up. At any given time, they are fermenting more than 300 barrels of up to 12 different beers in a facility that has been lovingly dubbed “The Memery”. This tour departs from I-Hotel at 11:50 am and arrives at the I-Hotel at 3:10 pm
April 14th: 11:50-3:10pm
Cost $15 (Must be 21 or older)
Workshop
Description
HIDRA (2-5pm)
Learn about the stellarator-tokamak fusion device at the Center for Plasma-Material Interactions along with exciting experiments to solve some of the toughest problems in fusion energy.
Resume/Career Building (2pm-5pm)
This workshop helps students prepare resumes and interview skills before the career fair at the conference.
Advanced Reactors Focus Group (9am-12pm)
Opportunity to discuss with members of the Department of Energy Loans Program which reactor types excite you the most.
Introduction to Machine Learning (9am-12pm)
Come learn about the exciting applications of machine learning in reactor physics and core design.
Scientific Computing (2-5pm)
Learn some of the key concepts needed to use powerful computing resources.
Last modified April 6, 2022, 10:08am CDT
