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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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U.S. nuclear supply chain: Ready for liftoff
Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org
This month, September 8–11, the American Nuclear Society is teaming up with the Nuclear Energy Institute to host our first-ever Nuclear Energy Conference and Expo—NECX for short—in Atlanta. This new meeting combines ANS’s Utility Working Conference and NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly to form what NEI CEO Maria Korsnick and I hope will be the premier nuclear industry gathering in America.
We did this because after more than four decades of relative stagnation, the U.S. nuclear supply chain is finally entering a new era of dynamic growth. This resurgence is being driven by several powerful and increasingly durable forces: the explosive demand for electricity from artificial intelligence and data centers, an unprecedented wave of public and private acceptance of—and investment in—advanced nuclear technologies, and a strong market signal for reliable, on-demand power. Add the recent Trump administration executive orders on nuclear into the mix, and you have all the makings of an accelerant-rich business environment primed for rapid expansion.
Michael A. Vest, Gerald K. Johnson, R. Dean Pierce, Eugene J. Wesolowski
Nuclear Technology | Volume 120 | Number 3 | December 1997 | Pages 243-252
Technical Note | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35415
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The operation and design of an inductively heated, bench-scale distillation furnace (retort) are described. The furnace is used as part of a pyrochemical process for the electrometallurgical treatment of spent light water reactor fuel. The focus is on the components that contain the metal melts and vapors. The forerunner of this paper focuses on the design of the induction power system. The equipment was designed to separate volatile from nonvolative metals; after separation, the nonvolatile metals are consolidated into a stillpot product. Twelve experimental runs were conducted; in seven, we used zinc as the distillate, and in five we used zinc-magnesium. In one of the runs, uranium was the stillpot product, and in two runs, copper was used as a substitute for uranium. After solving problems caused by violent evaporation, reboiling of the collected distillate, and blockage of the vapor path, we were able to evaporate the zinc and magnesium with distillate losses <6%. In some cases, the loss was as low as 0.3%. The stillpot product was successfully consolidated. Complete recovery of the stillpot product was achieved in one run.