ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
Standards Program
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Oct 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
November 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
J. E. Bodine, I. J. Groce, J. Guon, L. A. Hanson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 19 | Number 1 | May 1964 | Pages 1-7
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A19784
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The oxidative decladding of UO2 fuels has been demonstrated on three-foot sections of unirradiated fuel rods and on eight-inch sections of fuel rods irradiated to 21,000 MWd/MTU. Decladding rates were unaffected by the extent of irradiation. Uranium dioxide which was unirradiated, irradiated, and with fissia added to simulate 100,000 MWd/MTU irradiation was declad at similar rates. The effect of pressure and temperature on decladding rates was determined. Puncturing the cladding greatly enhanced the rate and gave a coarser product. This product was not completely converted to U3O8 during oxidative decladding. Greater than 99.9% of the UO2 fuel was removed from the cladding. There was no detectable contamination of the product by the cladding material. Little or no fission-product or plutonium decontamination was observed. Dissolution rates for the declad product, in 50% nitric acid, were 20 times as fast as for the “as received” UO2 fuel.
