ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Oct 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
November 2025
Nuclear Technology
October 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
T. A. Taiwo, T. K. Kim, J. A. Stillman, R. N. Hill, M. Salvatores, P. J. Finck
Nuclear Technology | Volume 155 | Number 1 | July 2006 | Pages 34-54
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3744
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Options for both full and partial transuranics (TRU) recycle in pressurized water reactors with a heterogeneous assembly design have been assessed. The impacts of these options on proliferation resistance, fuel handling, and repository performance were evaluated. The results indicate that the option of all-TRU recycle is the one most beneficial for the repository and nonproliferation, but this option also results in the most problems for fuel handling at the fabrication stage as a result of the high spontaneous fission neutron emission rate. Recycling americium in the fuel cycle provides significant benefits for both nonproliferation and repository performance over that obtained with plutonium-only recycling. Coupling americium recycling in the fuel cycle with storage of curium is an option that appears promising, if an appropriate solution for curium storage is found. Results for the various performance indices suggest that at least seven recycles of the TRU can be performed using the heterogeneous assembly design, provided remote handling of fuel is a price that is acceptable for the transmutation mission. Three recycles with an extended cooling interval prior to loading in advanced reactor transmutation systems is another option; the delay time provided by this campaign could be used to develop and deploy the advanced systems.