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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|Sponsored by RPD
Monday, November 10, 2025|1:00–2:45PM EST|Jefferson West
Session Chair:
John H. Jackson
Alternate Chair:
Abdalla Abou-Jaoude
Session Organizer:
The MARVEL reactor demonstration has two key objectives:
(1) as a pathfinder for advanced reactor developers, and
(2) as a testbed for novel nuclear uses and technologies.
This panel will focus on the second goal in light of the recently released Expression of Interest (EOI) on MARVEL utilization. The panel will provide an overview of how MARVEL reactor itself and supporting infrastructure can be utilized by end users for demonstrations and tests. Panelists will specifically cover topics relating to advanced controls (and leveraging the MACS/ViBRANT non-nuclear prototype testbed), microgrids coupled to MARVEL, and nuclear heat applications using MARVEL.
INL
Anthony Crawford
Timothy McJunkin
Aaron Epiney
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