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August 2026
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NRC issues draft EA/FONSI for Duane Arnold restart
Efforts by NextEra Energy to restart the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant as early as 2029 continue to move forward with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's preliminary environmental assessment and determination that the restart would have no significant environmental impacts.
On Thursday, the NRC posted a draft environmental assessment and a finding of no significant impact for the Palo, Iowa, facility; the Federal Register notice was published on Monday. The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing is a cooperating agency on the draft EA, as the DOE is considering providing financial assistance to the restart project.
Minsuk Seo, Shukai Yu, Venkatraman Gopalan, A. Leigh Winfrey
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 81 | Number 2 | February 2025 | Pages 118-131
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2024.2343972
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tungsten and tungsten carbide were damaged in ambient air with varying incident angles (0, 30, 45, and 60 deg) for approximately 5000 shots. The goal of these experiments was to observe the macroscopic surface modification in tungsten and tungsten carbide surfaces in harsh environments. At low pulse numbers (one to eight laser pulses on the same spot), tungsten aerial surface damage was less than tungsten carbide damage; however, at very high pulse numbers (5000), the opposite was true. Surface damage was mostly in the form of craters that were near circular at low impact angles and became more elongated at higher laser pulse impact angles. On the tungsten surface, a cluster of tungsten oxide debris formed. During laser exposure, laser-induced periodic surface structures and grooves were formed, and their geometries varied with laser intensity and laser impact angle. The period of laser-induced surface changes increased as the incident angle increased for both tungsten and tungsten carbide surfaces. More mass was lost in tungsten than tungsten carbide, which agrees with the morphological responses.