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.
Neelima Mallidi, Miles Greiner, Venkata V. R. Venigalla
Nuclear Technology | Volume 159 | Number 2 | August 2007 | Pages 192-201
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3864
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The response of a truck package to a radiation fire model is simulated for a range of fire durations using three-dimensional finite element analysis. A model is developed to determine the cumulative seal degradation from its temperature-versus-time history. This model is used to determine the minimum fire duration that causes the seal to lose containment integrity. The fire durations that cause the cladding to reach its long-term creep deformation and burst rupture temperatures are determined and found to be longer than the durations that cause the seal to lose containment integrity. These simulations are repeated for package models without the compliant regions of the impact limiters, and for a package with the impact limiter completely removed. Those simulations quantify the level of thermal protection the impact limiters provide to the seals and cladding during simulated fires.
