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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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IAEA again raises global nuclear power projections
Noting recent momentum behind nuclear power, the International Atomic Energy Agency has revised up its projections for the expansion of nuclear power, estimating that global nuclear operational capacity will more than double by 2050—reaching 2.6 times the 2024 level—with small modular reactors expected to play a pivotal role in this high-case scenario.
IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi announced the new projections, contained in the annual report Energy, Electricity, and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period up to 2050 at the 69th IAEA General Conference in Vienna.
In the report’s high-case scenario, nuclear electrical generating capacity is projected to increase to from 377 GW at the end of 2024 to 992 GW by 2050. In a low-case scenario, capacity rises 50 percent, compared with 2024, to 561 GW. SMRs are projected to account for 24 percent of the new capacity added in the high case and for 5 percent in the low case.
T. H. Trumbull, D. R. Harris
Nuclear Technology | Volume 154 | Number 3 | June 2006 | Pages 350-360
Technical Paper | Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3739
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of material homogenization on the calculated gamma-ray dose rate was studied for several arrangements of typical pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent fuel pins in an air medium using the Monte Carlo code MCNP. The models analyzed increased in geometric complexity, beginning with a single fuel pin; progressing to small lattices, i.e., 3 × 3, 5 × 5, and 7 × 7 fuel pins; and culminating with a full 17 × 17 pin PWR bundle analysis. The fuel pin dimensions and compositions were taken directly from a previous study, and efforts were made to parallel this study by specifying identical flux-to-dose functions and gamma-ray source spectra.The analysis shows two competing components to the overall effect of material homogenization on the calculated dose rate. Homogenization of pin lattices tends to lower the effect of radiation channeling but increase the effect of source redistribution. Depending on the size of the lattice and the location of the detectors, the net effect of material homogenization on the dose rate can be insignificant, or it can range from a 6% decrease to a 35% increase relative to the detailed geometry model.