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.
Ling Tao, Yuanlai Xie, Chundong Hu, Yongjian Xu, Wei Yi, Ning Tang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 6 | August 2022 | Pages 490-502
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2050131
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Currently, a neutral beam injection (NBI) system prototype with a 200-keV negative ion source, called the negative neutral beam injection (NNBI) system, is under construction for the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor Project. In the NNBI system, the calorimeter is an extremely important high-heat-flux component, and its panels have to withstand a heat flux density of up to dozens of MW/m2 under some extreme conditions; thus, its efficient heat transfer enhancement design and the corresponding supporting structural design are most important, especially under the condition of a 3600-s long pulse. According to the detailed design requirements of the NNBI system, an overall design scheme of the calorimeter based on the heat transfer enhancement structure of the swirl tube (SW for short) is proposed in this paper. By using the gas-liquid two-phase flow boiling model and the supporting structure’s finite element model, the heat transfer performance of the heat exchange module, the mass flow distribution and pressure drop of the entire cooling circuit of the component, and the strength of the support structure are evaluated to verify the feasibility of the design scheme. Finally, based on the proposed design scheme, the detailed design of the temperature monitor system, which has high reliability and economy, is completed. This research provides important theoretical and engineering support for the structural development of the calorimeter for the NNBI verification prototype and will also provide references for the design and development of other internal components of large-scale fusion devices.
