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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.
E. Alves, L. C. Alves, N. Franco, M. R. Da Silva, A. Paúl
Nuclear Technology | Volume 159 | Number 3 | September 2007 | Pages 233-237
Technical Paper | Beryllium Technology | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3870
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The improved mechanical and chemical properties of intermetallic beryllium compounds make them good candidates to replace metallic beryllium in future fusion power plants. Titanium beryllide is a compound with low chemical reactivity, which makes it very attractive for fusion applications. In this work we study the structural stability of titanium beryllides and the oxidation behavior under air annealing. Both high-resolution X-ray diffraction and microbeam techniques were used to follow the evolution of the composition and crystalline phases as well as the microstructure. Beryllium-titanium intermetallic compounds were produced using two alloys with a nominal composition of Be-5 at.% Ti and Be-7 at.% Ti. The as-cast samples show the presence of Be10Ti for the Be-7 at.% Ti alloy, while the Be12Ti phase was mostly found in the Be-5 at.% Ti compound. While the Be-5 at.% Ti alloy reveals large intragrain regions with high concentration of impurities (O, Fe) and Ti depletion, the Be-7 at.% Ti shows a more homogeneous structure. During thermal treatments up to 800°C in dry-air atmosphere, the oxidation occurs preferentially at the beryllium-rich regions. No evidence was found for phase separation during the annealing in vacuum.
