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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|Panel|Panels
Saturday, April 18, 2026|9:30–10:30AM CDT|MSC 2405
Session Chair:
Kyle Melito
Alternate Chair:
Vincent Su
Session Organizer:
Carlo Dal Colletto (TAMU)
This panel introduces nuclear engineering students to the medical side of their field, an area that many may not have explored deeply in their academic training. The panel covers therapeutic applications of radiation (cancer treatment, targeted radionuclide therapy), diagnostic imaging (PET, SPECT, nuclear medicine), radiopharmaceutical development, and the radiological physics underlying clinical medical practice. The goal is to give students a broader appreciation of the full scope of nuclear engineering careers in medicine.
Karl Gomez
TAMU
Leslie Braby
Texas A&M University
Gamal Akabani
Baylor Scott & White
Michael Martin
Texas A&M Environmental Health & Safety
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