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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.
Charles A. Riggs, Robert V. Tompson, Tushar K. Ghosh, Sudarshan K. Loyalka, Dabir S. Viswanath
Nuclear Technology | Volume 157 | Number 1 | January 2007 | Pages 74-86
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3803
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Adsorption isotherms for water vapor on powdered cesium iodide are reported. Both macroscopic and microscopic (single-particle) samples of CsI powder from the same source were studied by two different techniques. The adsorption isotherms for the macroscopic samples were obtained using a Cahn 2000 Electrobalance, which leaves the sample uncharged during the measurement and utilizes a conventional microbalance to measure the relevant mass changes. The adsorption isotherms for the microscopic samples were obtained using a custom-made two-ring electrodynamic balance to measure the mass changes due to adsorption that occurred for single suspended charged particles of the CsI powder. Here, the relevant mass changes were determined from the changes observed in the required particle suspension voltages in the balance. The total charge on each particle studied was determined using the electron stepping technique. Based on the classification scheme of Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller, it is concluded that type III adsorption isotherms were observed for both the macroscopic and the single-particle CsI samples, which would indicate a multilayer adsorption process. The isotherms for the macroscopic and the single-particle CsI samples, while exhibiting the same basic shape, were found to vary greatly in magnitude. It is believed that this variation in magnitude is primarily due to the charge on the microscopic samples interacting attractively with the highly polarized water molecules and thus significantly increasing the multilayer adsorption of water. Some possible chemisorption was also indicated for both the charged and uncharged CsI, as evidenced by an inability to completely regenerate either the macroscopic or the microscopic samples.