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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.
Ji Hwan Lim, Minkyu Park
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 5 | July 2022 | Pages 395-413
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2036574
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of the hypervapotron (HV) fin angle on heat transfer was analyzed through visualization experiments and subcooled flow boiling experiments. An HV channel with a fin angle of 45 deg had a higher onset-of-nucleate-boiling heat flux than the typical HV channel. Additionally, as the heat flux increased, the bubble-sliding effect caused by the tilted fin was visualized, and it was observed that the vapor inside the fin was agglomerated by the sliding flow and driven into the side slot. When the fin angle of the typical HV channel was set as 0 deg, as the tilted angle of the fin increased, the heat transfer and critical heat flux (CHF) were improved owing to the secondary flow generated by the sliding effect. When the fin angle reached 45 deg, the CHF value was improved by 81% compared with the typical HV channel, which was the highest enhancement rate among the evaluated HV channels. However, when the fin angle exceeded 45 deg, the vapors aggregated more rapidly as the sliding velocity induced inside the fin increased. Furthermore, the two-phase pressure drop was analyzed through differential pressure measurements. The 45-deg tilted HV channel had a higher onset-of-significant-void heat flux value than all the other channels (HV, swirl, smooth, flat channels).