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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 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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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.
Robert C. Moore, Milton E. Vernon, Edward J. Parma, Paul S. Pickard, Gary E. Rochau
Nuclear Technology | Volume 178 | Number 1 | April 2012 | Pages 111-118
Technical Paper | Safety and Technology of Nuclear Hydrogen Production, Control, and Management / Nuclear Hydrogen Production | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13551
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this work, we describe a novel design for a H2SO4 decomposer. The decomposition of H2SO4 to produce SO2 is a common processing operation in the sulfur-based thermochemical cycles for hydrogen production where acid decomposition takes place at 850°C in the presence of a catalyst. The combination of a high temperature and sulfuric acid creates a very corrosive environment that presents significant design challenges. The new decomposer design is based on a bayonet-type heat exchanger tube with the annular space packed with a catalyst. The unit is constructed of silicon carbide and other highly corrosion-resistant materials. The new design integrates acid boiling, superheating, decomposition, and heat recuperation into a single process and eliminates problems of corrosion and failure of high-temperature seals encountered in previous testing using metallic construction materials. The unit was tested by varying the acid feed rate and decomposition temperature and pressure.