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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|Reactor Physics
Friday, April 17, 2026|1:15–2:15PM CDT|RUDR 504
Session Chair:
Lane W. Behnke
Alternate Chair:
Zach Lassater
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Neutron Flux Shaping and Enrichment Zoning in an HTGR Micro-Reactor
1:15–1:25PM CDT
Alfredo A. Cortez (TAMU)
Paper
Investigation of Telescoping Control Rods in Prismatic High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors
1:25–1:35PM CDT
Tristan Engelmann (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison), Ethan D. Chang (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison)
Validation of the VHTRC-1 Reactor Benchmark with MCNP-6 and MVP-II
1:35–1:45PM CDT
Aidan Glickman (TAMU), Nina C. Fleming (NCSU), Ayman I. Hawari (TAMU)
Monte Carlo Burnup Calculations with Power Oscillation Reduction
1:45–1:55PM CDT
Madison Grove (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.), Zeyun Wu (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.)
Fuel Loading Optimization of the BWRX-300 Using Multiphysics Environment VERA
1:55–2:05PM CDT
Naomi K. Rogers (Univ. Michigan), Sabrina Vanyo (Univ. Michigan), Avery A. Peplinski (Univ. Michigan)
Analysis and Experiment Design for Cross-Section Uncertainty Reduction with the KRUSTY Benchmark
2:05–2:15PM CDT
Addison Mulder (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Luke Watson (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Aaron Sucov (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Isadora H. Turbek (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
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