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.
J. Boscary et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 263-268
Divertor and High-Heat-Flux Components | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 1), Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-499
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The actively water-cooled plasma facing components (PFCs) of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator consisting of the first wall protection and the divertor systems have a total surface area of about 265m2. The complex 3D geometry of the plasma and plasma vessel with 244 vessel ports dedicated to diagnostics, heating systems and water-cooling pipe-work together with the need to minimize the space taken and the significant heat loads expected on the components presents significant design and manufacturing challenges.The actively water- cooled divertor, made of 100 target modules, has an area of 19 m2. Each target module is formed from target elements made of CFC flat tiles bonded with the bi-layer technology to CuCrZr heat sinks. In total 16,000 tiles are bonded to the 890 target elements. A full-scale target module prototype has been manufactured to validate the design, the selected technological solutions and the inspection methods to be used in the serial module fabrication.About 30% of the target elements have been delivered and the production of the remaining elements should be completed by 2014. The fabrication of the components of the first wall protection, 320 stainless steel panels and 170 heat shields, is almost completed.
