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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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!
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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.
J. Jung, H. Y. Kim, S. M. An
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 2 | February 2022 | Pages 268-283
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1929769
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For analysis of an ex-vessel severe accident, the corium melt conditions inside the reactor vessel are important at the time of the reactor vessel failure together with the reactor vessel failure mode. To determine penetration tube failure in the lower head of the reactor vessel during a severe accident, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute developed the PENetration Tube Analysis Program 2.0 (PENTAP 2.0) and carried out validation work based on experimental data that can simulate penetration tube heatup, rupture, penetration weld failure, and penetration tube ejection failure. A numerical simulation was undertaken to investigate the effect of the presence of melt in a tube, the expansion direction of the reactor vessel hole, and wall ablation on tube failure using PENTAP 2.0. The simulation results showed that the presence of melt inside the tube helps prevent tube ejection. When melt is not in the penetration tube, tube ejection is strongly dependent on the expansion direction of the reactor vessel hole.