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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|Sponsored by THD|Cosponsored by RPD
Tuesday, November 17, 2020|4:50–6:30PM EST
Session Chair:
Prashant K. Jain (Oak Ridge National Lab)
Session Organizer:
Track Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Emilian Popov
Staff Producer:
Erica McGowan (American Nuclear Society)
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Pressure Vessel Design Optimization of the Transformational Challenge Reactor
Nathan D. See (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Jesse Heinemann (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Phillip Chesser (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Sacit M. Cetiner (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Benjamin R. Betzler (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Paper
Ex-Core Thermofluidic Modeling and Simulations for Transformational Challenge Reactor
B. R. Betzler (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Brian J. Ade (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Florent Heidet (Argonne National Laboratory), Alberto Talamo (Argonne National Laboratory), Subhasish Mohanty (Argonne National Laboratory), Aurelien X. Bergeron (Argonne National Laboratory), Prasad Vegendla (Argonne National Laboratory)
Gas Coolant Channel Optimization for Transformational Challenge Reactor
Prashant K. Jain (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Casey J. Jesse (Idaho National Laboratory), Justin Weinmeister (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Preliminary Design and Stress Analysis of the Transformational Challenge Reactor Vessel
Subhasish Mohanty (Argonne National Laboratory), Benjamin R. Betzler (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Brian J. Ade (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Florent Heidet (Argonne National Laboratory), Prasad Vegendla (Argonne National Laboratory), Alberto Talamo (Argonne National Laboratory), Aurelien X. Bergeron (Argonne National Laboratory)
Transformational Challenge Reactor Accident Analysis
Jordan D. Rader (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Prashant K. Jain (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Aaron J. Wysocki (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Thermal-Hydraulic Analyses to Support TCR Optimization
Kurt A. Terrani (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Benjamin R. Betzler (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Rick Archibald (ORNL), Briana D. Hiscox (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Vladimir Sobes (University of Tennessee Knoxville), Emilian Popov (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
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