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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.
L. Lebaron-Jacobs, R. Fottorino, F. Barbry, P. Berard, F. Briot, P. Boisson, D. Cavadore, C. Challeton-de Vathaire, S. Distinguin, L. Exmelin, A. Flury-Herard, E. Gaillard-Lecanu, M. Gonin, J.-P. Le Goff, G. Lecoix, G. Lemaire, R. Medioni, M. H. Persico, Y. Racine, C. Riasse, E. Rongier, P. Voisin, A. Miele
Nuclear Technology | Volume 161 | Number 1 | January 2008 | Pages 27-34
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3910
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A working group from health occupational and clinical biochemistry services on French sites has issued essential data sheets on the guidelines to follow in managing the victims of a criticality accident. Since the priority of the medical management after a criticality accident is to assess the dose and the distribution of dose, some dosimetric investigations have been selected in order to provide a prompt response and to anticipate the final dose reconstruction. Comparison exercises between clinical biochemistry laboratories on French sites were carried out to confirm that each laboratory maintained the required operational methods for hair treatment and the appropriate equipment for 32P activity in hair and 24Na activity in blood measurements, and to demonstrate its ability to rapidly provide neutron dose estimates after a criticality accident. As a result, a relation has been assessed to estimate the dose and the distribution of dose according to the neutron spectrum following a criticality accident.
