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
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2026
Latest News
Project Omega emerges from stealth mode with plans to recycle U.S. spent fuel
Nuclear technology start-up Project Omega announced on February 11 that it has emerged from stealth mode with hopes of processing and recycling spent nuclear fuel into “long-duration, high-density power sources and critical materials for the nuclear industry.”
Tsuguyuki Kobayashi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 177 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 231-244
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13368
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A simple procedure to simulate the important kinetic features of counter-current processes in pulsed columns has been developed. The overall mass transfer coefficient was simplified to be constant along the column, and the stripping of Pu4+ by hydroxylamine is assumed to be instantaneous to avoid complex reaction rate calculations. The number of calculation cells can be determined by making calculations with an increasing number of cells until its influence becomes small enough. The validity of these simplifications was confirmed by comparing the calculation results with a wide range of measured data from extraction and stripping as well as Pu partition tests with laboratory, engineering, and pilot scale columns. This procedure is intended for use in a conceptual design study of a future fast breeder reactor (FBR) reprocessing plant. An example of its application in a flow sheet calculation was demonstrated, where a coextraction process of U and Pu was simulated to find the conditions to obtain a solution with Pu/(U + Pu) ratio being 30% from a typical feed of FBR spent fuel solution.