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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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.
K. Urso, K. Sridharan, B. J. Jaques, G. Alanko, D. P. Butt, M. Meyer, P. Xu, B. Tyburska-Püschel
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 1 | October 2016 | Pages 100-110
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-155
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The corrosion resistance of cerium silicide, a surrogate of uranium silicide, is investigated to gain insight into the reaction of uranium silicide with water. As-received and proton-irradiated Ce3Si2, CeSi2, and CeSi1.x monolithic pellets are subjected to corrosion tests in water at 300°C and 9 MPa for up to 48 h. Results show that an oxide layer composed of Ce4.67 (SiO4)3O forms on the surface of all samples, and it grows thicker with extended exposure times. Irradiated samples corrode to a greater extent than their unirradiated counterparts, which is mainly a result of the existing post-irradiation cerium oxide and the presence of ion-induced defects. Most of the Ce3Si2 samples crack (as-received) or fracture (ion-irradiated) during testing, which is due to the brittleness of the samples and oxide erosion/spallation that occur during testing.
