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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.
M. Salvatores, I. Slessarev, M. Uematsu
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 116 | Number 1 | January 1994 | Pages 1-18
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE94-A21476
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new physics approach is presented to evaluate the theoretical transmutation potential of different nuclear power systems (standard or advanced fission reactors and hybrid accelerator/sub-critical blankets). The nuclei to be transmuted are the transuranium (or transplutonium) isotopes produced in the irradiation of naturally occurring fuels (uranium or thorium) and the fission product isotopes. The analysis is based on an evaluation of neutronic constraints on the transmutation rates integrated over the life of the nuclide families, taking into account the overall neutron balance of the system being considered. This method allows a comparison of the potential of different systems and establishes physics limitations, particularly in the field of fission product transmutation.
