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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.
Shen Gao
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 8 | November 2022 | Pages 640-648
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2114692
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the process of electron beam and plasma interaction, the angular magnetic field produced by the electron beam affects the physical parameters of the plasma. In this paper, first, the Thomson ionization coefficient under the condition of cross field is derived. Second, based on a magnetohydrodynamics method, the axial distribution of plasma density in the positive column of low-pressure glow discharge under the magnetic field is deduced, and the effect of the angular magnetic field on glow discharge plasma is studied. Finally, the above results are verified by numerical simulation. The results show that when the pressure is 10 Pa, the plasma density first increases and then decreases with the increase of magnetic field. When the pressure is 0.1 Pa, the plasma density decreases with the increase of magnetic field.