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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.
M. J. Baldwin, R. P. Doerner, D. Nishijima, M. Patino, M. J. Simmonds, G. Tynan, J. H. Yu, A. Založnik
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 7 | October 2019 | Pages 664-673
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1646608
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recent plasma-material-interaction (PMI) studies of relevance to fusion PMI science are discussed. The results are a mix of science experiments and in situ diagnostic technology development. Scientific issues addressed include the nature of He and W atom migration in the evolution of W fuzz surfaces, understanding the nature of D retention in damaged W surfaces via modeling with the tritium migration and analysis program, and an examination of synergistic effects associated with D trapping on composite Be codeposit and W substrate surfaces. In situ diagnostic developments discussed include laser-induced desorption spectroscopy for the measurement of bulk hydrogen retention and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for the measurement of near-surface composition.