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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.
Chang Joon Jeong, Ho Chun Suk
Nuclear Technology | Volume 154 | Number 2 | May 2006 | Pages 215-223
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3729
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The power pulse characteristics following a large loss-of-coolant accident have been analyzed for a Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU)-6 reactor core fueled with a CANDU flexible fueling recovered uranium fuel. The coupled simulations for the reactor physics and channel thermal-hydraulics phenomena are done using the RFSP and CATHENA codes. The 55% pump suction, 35% reactor inlet header, and 100% reactor outlet header breaks were selected. From the analysis results, it is known that the shutoff rods have enough reactivity for a reactor shutdown and to maintain it at a subcriticality state. Even with the highest power pulse, which occurred in a 100% reactor outlet header break, the fuel temperature was maintained below the fuel melting temperature. The summation of the initial stored energy and the transient pulse energy of the hottest fuel pin has a minimum 17% margin for the fuel breakup.
