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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.
Yue Jin, Faith R. Beek, Fan-Bill Cheung (Penn State), Stephen M. Bajorek, Kirk Tien, Chris L. Hoxie (NRC)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 98-108
In the current study, a new mass quality correlation was developed for the dispersed flow film boiling (DFFB) regime in a rod bundle geometry during bottom reflood. The new correlation was based on the fundamental conservation equations such that the physics during the reflood process can be adequately captured. It is found that the actual mass quality as well as the vapor drift velocity in the DFFB regime are functions of the void fraction, interfacial heat transfer, vapor superheat, droplet size, quench front location and the fluid properties. The Rod Bundle Heat Transfer (RBHT) reflood tests were used to verify the validity of the new correlation and to determine the coefficients. It was found that the current model is able to predict the two-phase mass quality well within 10% error when compared to experimental data.