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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.
Bhoomi S. Gajjar, Anil Tyagi, Sanjeev Varshney, Siddharth Kumar, Saroj Jha, Hitesh Kumar B. Pandya, P. V. Subhash
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 82 | Number 4 | May 2026 | Pages 761-774
Review Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2025.2475423
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Neutronics Group at ITER-India is carrying out neutronics activities for ITER diagnostics systems [Equatorial Port Plug 11 (EPP-11) and Upper Port Plug (UPP) 09 (UPP-09)] as part of India’s in-kind contribution. The activities include development works on comprehensive nuclear and shielding analyses supporting significant aspects of design, optimization, engineering, and safety of systems and facilities. Neutronics analysis for the X-Ray Crystal Spectrometer (XRCS) Survey diagnostics system at EPP-11 of ITER is being conducted at ITER-India. The preliminary scoping study of the shielding design for the spectrometer with a shielded cabinet (SC) is completed. Because of space and weight constraints, robust optimization for the shielding design is carried out. Different sets of calculations have been done using MCNP. Reduced neutron flux at the SC is achieved by optimizing the geometry of the neutron beam dump. Nuclear activation analysis, radioactive waste classification, and important radiological responses for all the components are performed for the XRCS diagnostics in EPP-11. The results are validated by the Port Integrator and ITER Organization. The neutronic analysis for UPP-09 was carried out for the Preliminary Design Review activities. The total neutron flux was calculated with an error of less than 10% for all mesh voxels. Estimations of the neutron and photon flux and nuclear heating were made. The nuclear activation analysis was done by using 175 energy groups and the FISPACT code for estimation of the activity levels in different diagnostics shielding modules (DSMs). The design is being further optimized for the effectiveness of the shielding by modifying the DSM, adding shielding to reduce streaming from gap areas and shielding in the UPP enclosure.