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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.
Thursday, November 21, 2024|8:00AM–12:00PM EST
Canaveral 1
Cost: $49
This workshop will cover many of the new features, improvements, and updated tools included in the latest MCNP6.3 code release that are most relevant to the radiation protection and shielding community. While more details of the workshop will be forthcoming, a few of the topics to expect at this workshop include:
MCNP6.3 Unstructured Mesh Geometry
This workshop will cover the unstructured mesh capability in the latest MCNP6.3 code release including some relevant exercises relevant to the radiation protection and shielding community. While more details of the workshop will be forthcoming, a few of the topics to expect at this workshop include:
• An overview of the unstructured mesh capability in MCNP6, highlighting the evolution of this capability within the versions of the MCNP6 code releases
• Discussion on the Abaqus format expected by the MCNP code
• Overview of HDF5-based input/output of the unstructured mesh mesh model and elemental edit file (eeout)
• New geometry and tally visualization options through XDMF-based output
• Ongoing developments in progress for MCNP6.4
All the workshop materials, including slides, exercises, documentation, etc., will be made available to all participants. There will be live exercises done by the instructors. Participants interested in performing the exercises will need to bring their own laptop with the MCNP6.3 software installed (see how to obtain the MCNP6.3 code here ( https://mcnp.lanl.gov/how_to_get_the_mcnp_code.html ), along with a few other openly available tools (e.g., Python, MCNPTools, ParaView). Earlier versions of the MCNP6 code, i.e., MCNP6.2 and earlier, will not be able to perform the exercises provided. Details on the additional software and versions required will be communicated well before the workshop. Attendees are not required to participate in the exercises performed during the workshop nor are they required to have a license to the MCNP6 code. Instructors will be available to discuss participant questions regarding the workshop materials.
