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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
NuScale Energy Exploration Center opens at George Mason University
NuScale Power Corporation has opened another Energy Exploration (E2) Center—this one at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. Just last month, a NuScale E2 Center opened at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C. The newest E2 at George Mason is the company’s 11th center.
E. J. Detilleux, Werner Hild, L. Geens
Nuclear Technology | Volume 61 | Number 3 | June 1983 | Pages 398-402
Technical Paper | New Directions in Nuclear Energy with Emphasis on Fuel Cycles / Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33162
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
While the optimal use of the energy potential of uranium calls for development of the fast breeder reactor, it appears that their introduction could take more time than anticipated a few years ago. During this interim period, the recycle of the plutonium in thermal reactors is considered by several users as an interesting provisional alternative. In western Europe, 20 to 30 tons of irradiated mixed oxide (MOX) fuel exist today and between 100 and 300 tons could have been unloaded by about 1995, depending on the reprocessing capabilities for standard light water reactor (LWR) fuel and the implementation program for fast breeder reactors. The main differences between standard and MOX fuels result from the composition of the core material; however, these differences do not cause major technical difficulties that cannot be solved by established or known means. The reopening of the former Eurochemic plant at Mol, Belgium, for the reprocessing of nonstandard fuels, among which plutonium fuel unloaded from LWRs could occupy a leading position, would offer an opportunity to demonstrate the feasibility of this type of reprocessing and simultaneously cover the needs of the European countries adopting the recycle of plutonium in thermal reactors.