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.
S. Krat, A. Prishvitsyn, A. Alieva, N. Efimov, E. Vinitskiy, D. Ulasevich, A. Izarova, F. Podolyako, A. Belov, A. Meshcheryakov, J. Ongena, N. Kharchev, A. Chernenko, R. Khayrutdinov, V. Lukash, D. Sinelnikov, D. Bulgadaryan, I. Sorokin, K. Gubskiy, A. Kaziev, D. Kolodko, V. Tumarkin, A. Isakova, A. Grunin, L. Begrambekov, R. Voskoboinikov, A. Melnikov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 4 | May 2023 | Pages 446-464
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2149033
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An overview of the MEPhIST-0 educational and research small-scale spherical tokamak project is presented including the vacuum vessel, magnetic field systems, and diagnostics. In contrast to other small machines, it is an advanced tokamak with D-shaped plasma equipped with an electron-cyclotron resonance pre-ionization system for plasma startup and an ion-cyclotron resonance system for plasma heating and wall conditioning. The design choices taken are discussed from the perspective of a primarily educational installation. The machine design is simplified while remaining relevant to larger devices. First plasma results obtained in 2021 are presented.
