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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.
Yuan-Hsiang Chang, Mu-Ping Xu, Jyh-Tong Teng, Te-Chuan Wang, Ray-Feng Chiang, Huey-Ling Hwu, Wang-Chyuan Chen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 163 | Number 3 | September 2008 | Pages 435-443
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A4001
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
While nuclear power has become the major source of electricity in many countries, its safety remains an important issue for many nuclear researchers and technologists. In this study, an advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) monitoring system is presented using the Modular Accident Analysis Program (MAAP) as a reactor simulator. The ABWR monitoring system was designed with a user-friendly graphical interface and computer processing that allows nuclear engineers and operators to "visualize" many MAAP parameters of the reactor and containment. Computer animations are also applied with respect to preselected MAAP parameters and six reactor scenarios that are of particular interest to nuclear technologists. Simulated results are presented to demonstrate the system using the six reactor/containment scenarios, and these six scenarios are typical as far as the progression of the events for the severe accidents is concerned. The preliminary results show that our ABWR monitoring system not only indicates if the reactor is under normal operations but also yields several warning messages if the reactor is under various conditions of concern. Therefore, our ABWR monitoring system could offer an effective and efficient display of plant data that helps nuclear engineers and operators maintain the steady state of the ABWR and provide plant data for the accident conditions, ultimately bringing the nuclear power plant to a safe-stable state.