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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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
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.
Melissa Ghrist, Mike Ellis, David Bean, Cable Kurwitz, Frederick Best
Nuclear Technology | Volume 156 | Number 3 | December 2006 | Pages 282-288
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3791
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Phase separation in reduced gravity continues to be an obstacle for the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations' power programs. Phase separation would be necessary for the use of a Rankine power conversion cycle in microgravity. The vortex phase separator invented by Texas A&M University may be implemented in a microgravity Rankine cycle for successful phase separation. With the known characteristics of the separator/inventory control system, the Texas A&M University vortex phase separator can be operated successfully for a wide variety of uses in microgravity. The separator operating principle and envelope, test performance data, and inventory monitoring system are described.
