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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The journey of the U.S. fuel cycle
Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org
While most big journeys begin with a clear objective, they rarely start with an exact knowledge of the route. When commissioning the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson didn’t provide specific “turn right at the big mountain” directions to the Corps of Discovery. He gave goal-oriented instructions: explore the Missouri River, find its source, search for a transcontinental water route to the Pacific, and build scientific and cultural knowledge along the way.
Jefferson left it up to Lewis and Clark to turn his broad, geopolitically motivated guidance into gritty reality.
Similarly, U.S. nuclear policy has begun a journey toward closing the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle. There is a clear signal of support for recycling from the Trump administration, along with growing bipartisan excitement in Congress. Yet the precise path remains unclear.
Y. Takemura, K. Ishii, M. Yamanashi, N. Kikuno, A. Fueki, K. Tsutsui, M. Shimoo, T. Saito, K. Yatsu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 1 | January 2001 | Pages 273-276
Poster Presentations | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963459
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The relation between the radial potential profile of the core plasma are examined in the tandem mirror GAMMA 10. It is observed that the radial potential profiles are convex over the cross section of the plasma column and the high energy end-loss ions over the confinement potential are decreased too in many shots. The radial potential profiles were controlled by changing the electrostatic potential profiles of the separated coaxial end plates. On flattening the radial profiles, the reduction of the high energy end-loss ions was softened and the plasma density increased in the central cell. These results suggest that the flattened radial potential profiles decrease the radial diffusion and improve the confinement of the plasma.