ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Educational Session|Panel|Sponsored by Engineering and Equipment Reliability|Cosponsored by Executive/Leadership, Maintenance and Work Management
Tuesday, August 11, 2020|4:00–5:30PM EDT
Session Organizers:
Jon Anderson (ACA)
Ray Herb (Southern Nuclear Company)
Pareez E. Golub (Sargent & Lundy)
Knowledge Manager:
Sarah Lynn (Luminant)
Nuclear Plants and Utilities are operating on razor thin margins, and the pressure to both increase equipment reliability and reduce cost within ever shrinking operating budgets has given rise to Monitoring and Diagnostics that replace time based PMs. Collectively, there is a need to significantly improved the quality and cost-effectiveness of Monitoring and Diagnostics Centers that are tightly integrated into Work Management. This session will include presentations from utilities that are spinning up M&D centers, fine tuning existing M&D centers, integrating into Fleet M&D centers. There will also be discussion on lessons learned, and integration with Work Management, Operations and Engineering all in an attempt to increase equipment reliability at the most economical cost. Using automation to monitor critical equipment, produce automated equipment health reports, predict needed repairs and reduce the time based maintenance. Come hear about how to justify the start-up costs, establish monitoring scopes using the EPRI Cost benefit tools and COLM strategies.
Brando Diegel
Xcel
Robert Austin
EPRI
Brandon Jenewein
South Texas Project
Jeff Edwards
Triencon Services Inc.
Gopal Gopalkrishnan
OSI Soft
Tim Johnson
Endevor LLC.
Richard Jackson
CYNDRUS LLC
Molly Strasser
Xcel Energy
To access the session recording, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Register NowLog In
To access session resources, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Session Notes
To join the conversation, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.