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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
Randall B. Randolph, John A. Oertel, Tana Cardenas, Christopher E. Hamilton, Derek W. Schmidt, Brian M. Patterson, Franklin Fierro, Deanna Capelli
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 2 | March 2018 | Pages 187-193
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1356196
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new method has been developed to dry-machine foams. Most of these foams are at the lower end of what is considered machineable because of their density or foam composition. Excluding aerogel foams, the foams traditionally required a wax-fill process before surviving any machining forces. This new dry-machining method uses a technique called turn-milling and replaces the old wax-fill method that added several weeks to the fabrication schedule and uncertainty in the quality of the final part. The new method utilizes a computer numerical control gang-tool–style lathe that is set up with electric live-tooling spindles. The foams are dry-machined with the lathe main spindle turning in the opposite direction of the live-tooling spindle. This turn-milling technique reduces tool pressure and can accommodate heavier roughing cuts that produce much faster cycle times. With this new dry-machining method we are able to machine the entire foam target component in one operation, eliminating the need for another machining operation for finishing the backside.