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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Latest News
Japan gets new U for enrichment as global power and fuel plans grow
President Trump is in Japan today, with a visit with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on the agenda. Takaichi, who took office just last week as Japan’s first female prime minister, has already spoken in favor of nuclear energy and of accelerating the restart of Japan’s long-shuttered power reactors, as Reuters and others have reported. Much of the uranium to power those reactors will be enriched at Japan’s lone enrichment facility—part of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.’s Rokkasho fuel complex—which accepted its first delivery of fresh uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) in 11 years earlier this month.
Mark T. Robinson, William A. Brooksbank, Jr., Samuel A. Reynolds, Henry W. Wright, Thomas H. Handley
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 4 | Number 3 | September 1958 | Pages 288-296
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A25529
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Observations are reported on the behavior of several fission product elements in molten NaF-ZrF4-UF4 fuels, irradiated in capsule experiments, forced-convection in-pile loop experiments, and in the Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE). The rare gases have been observed to escape readily from the fuels in dynamic tests, although in static tests the rate of escape is very low. Ruthenium and niobium deposit on the Inconel walls of the fuel container, probably as metals. Other fission products studied (Sr, Zr, La, Ce) appear to remain in the fuel. The results obtained are entirely consistent with theoretical predictions. It is suggested that the observed noble metal deposit may serve to reduce corrosion of metals by molten fluoride fuels. The unsatisfactory nature of Cs137 as a fission monitor in such fuels is reported and the use of Zr95 as a substitute is discussed.