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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.
Kee Chan Song, Geun Il Park, Jung Won Lee, Jang Jin Park, Myung Seung Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 162 | Number 2 | May 2008 | Pages 158-168
Technical Paper | First International Pyroprocessing Research Conference | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3943
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Quantitative analysis of the fission gas release characteristics during the voloxidation and oxidation and reduction of oxide fuel (OREOX) processes of spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel was carried out by spent PWR fuel in a hot cell of the DUPIC Fuel Development Facility. The release characteristics of 85Kr and 14C fission gases during voloxidation process at 500°C are closely linked to the degree of conversion efficiency of UO2 to U3O8 powder, and it can be interpreted that the release from grain boundary would be dominated during this step. Volatile fission gases of 14C and 85Kr were released to near completion during the OREOX process. Both the 14C and 85Kr have similar release characteristics under the voloxidation and OREOX process conditions. A higher burnup spent fuel showed a higher release fraction than that of a low burnup fuel during the voloxidation step. It was also observed that the release fraction of semivolatile Cs was ~16% during a reduction at 1000°C of the oxidized powder, but over 90% during the voloxidation at 1250°C.
