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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.
Yuxin Chai, Xingui Zhou, Huayu Zhang, Yumin Zhang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 2 | February 2019 | Pages 112-119
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2018.1533620
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Silicon carbide (SiC) fiber–reinforced SiC matrix (SiCf/SiC) composites, employing two SiC fibers, KD-I and KD-II, respectively, were fabricated by the precursor infiltration and pyrolysis process. A pyrocarbon coating was used as the fiber-matrix interface. In addition, the effects of heat treatment on the properties of the SiC fibers and SiCf/SiC composites were investigated. Results revealed marginal performance degradation of the KD-I and KD-II SiC fibers after heat treatment at 1100°C for 1 h. However, heat treatment at 1400°C for 1 h led to the decrease in the single-filament tensile strength of the KD-I and KD-II SiC fibers by 50.2% and 10.1%, respectively. In addition, the flexural strength of the SiCf/SiC composites, which were fabricated using the KD-I and KD-II SiC fibers, decreased by 49.6% and 15.9%, respectively. The difference in the composition of the KD-I and KD-II SiC fibers demonstrated that the SiC fibers and SiCf/SiC composites decreased by varying degrees.