diff --git a/Common/normalization.py b/Common/normalization.py
index b0e6bf40..2b932052 100644
--- a/Common/normalization.py
+++ b/Common/normalization.py
@@ -130,15 +130,19 @@ def normalize_node_data(self, node_list: list, batch_size: int = 1000) -> list:
         """
         This method calls the NodeNormalization web service and normalizes a list of nodes.
 
-        :param node_list: A list of nodes to normalize
+        :param node_list: A list of unique nodes to normalize
         :param batch_size: the number of curies to be sent to NodeNormalization at once
 
         :return:
         """
-        # init the cache - this accumulates all the results from the node norm service
-        cached_node_norms: dict = {}
 
-        # make a list of the node ids
+        # look up all valid biolink node types if needed
+        # this is used when strict normalization is off to ensure only valid types go into the graph as NODE_TYPES
+        if not self.strict_normalization and not self.biolink_compliant_node_types:
+            biolink_lookup = EdgeNormalizer(edge_normalization_version=self.biolink_version)
+            self.biolink_compliant_node_types = biolink_lookup.get_valid_node_types()
+
+        # make a list of the node ids, we used to deduplicate here, but now we expect the list to be unique ids
         to_normalize: list = [node['id'] for node in node_list]
 
         # use indexes and slice to grab batch_size sized chunks of ids from the list
@@ -164,14 +168,15 @@ def normalize_node_data(self, node_list: list, batch_size: int = 1000) -> list:
         # hit the node norm api with the chunks of curies in parallel
         # we could try to optimize the number of max_workers for ThreadPoolExecutor more specifically,
         # by default python attempts to find a reasonable # based on os.cpu_count()
+        node_normalization_results: dict = {}
         with ThreadPoolExecutor() as executor:
             normalization_results = list(executor.map(self.hit_node_norm_service, chunks_of_ids))
             for normalization_json, ids in zip(normalization_results, chunks_of_ids):
                 if not normalization_json:
-                    self.logger.error(f'Normalization json results missing for ids:{ids}')
+                    self.logger.error(f'!!! Normalization json results missing for ids: {ids}')
                 else:
                     # merge the normalization results into one dictionary
-                    cached_node_norms.update(**normalization_json)
+                    node_normalization_results.update(**normalization_json)
 
         # reset the node index
         node_idx = 0
@@ -179,11 +184,6 @@ def normalize_node_data(self, node_list: list, batch_size: int = 1000) -> list:
         # node ids that failed to normalize
         failed_to_normalize: list = []
 
-        # look up valid node types if needed
-        if not self.strict_normalization and not self.biolink_compliant_node_types:
-            biolink_lookup = EdgeNormalizer(edge_normalization_version=self.biolink_version)
-            self.biolink_compliant_node_types = biolink_lookup.get_valid_node_types()
-
         # for each node update the node with normalized information
         # store the normalized IDs in self.node_normalization_lookup for later look up
         while node_idx < len(node_list):
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ def normalize_node_data(self, node_list: list, batch_size: int = 1000) -> list:
                 current_node[NODE_TYPES] = list(set(current_node[NODE_TYPES]))
 
             # did we get a response from the normalizer
-            current_node_normalization = cached_node_norms[current_node_id]
+            current_node_normalization = node_normalization_results[current_node_id]
             if current_node_normalization is not None:
 
                 current_node_id_section = current_node_normalization['id']
@@ -354,10 +354,10 @@ def get_current_node_norm_version(self):
 
     @staticmethod
     def get_normalization_requests_session():
-        pool_maxsize = min(os.cpu_count(), 10)
+        pool_maxsize = max(os.cpu_count(), 10)
         s = requests.Session()
-        retries = Retry(total=10,
-                        backoff_factor=.5,
+        retries = Retry(total=8,
+                        backoff_factor=1,
                         status_forcelist=[502, 503, 504, 403, 429])
         s.mount('https://', HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retries, pool_maxsize=pool_maxsize))
         s.mount('http://', HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retries, pool_maxsize=pool_maxsize))