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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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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.
Vincent A. Mousseau
Nuclear Technology | Volume 158 | Number 1 | April 2007 | Pages 26-35
Technical Paper | Best Estimate Methods | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3822
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Both analytical and numerical results are employed to compare the accuracy of numerical methods for the solution of the system of nonlinear partial differential equations that represent the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy in thermal-hydraulic codes. The analysis points out the types of errors that need to be addressed to make the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy in thermal-hydraulic codes more accurate. Simulation results depict trends that are expected from the analytical results. Conclusions based on both the analytical and numerical results show that modern numerical methods can provide significant improvements in accuracy over the approaches employed in the current thermal-hydraulic codes.
