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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
A. Reiman, S. Hirshman, S. Hudson, D. Monticello, P. Rutherford, A. Boozer, A. Brooks, R. Hatcher, L. Ku, E. A. Lazarus, H. Neilson, D. Strickler, R. White, M. Zarnstorff
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 2 | February 2007 | Pages 145-165
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1296
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Equilibrium issues encountered in the design of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) are discussed, focusing particularly on equilibrium magnetic islands. Significant improvements have been made to the VMEC equilibrium code to deal with numerical challenges at the low aspect ratios characterizing the NCSX design. Modifications to the PIES code have increased its speed, allowing routine evaluation of flux surfaces for candidate configurations. An optimizer has been built around the PIES code for healing magnetic islands, modifying the coil shapes to suppress resonant components of the magnetic field while preserving desired physics and engineering properties. The modified coils produce improved flux surface quality for a range of configurations. Neoclassical effects, which are not included in the PIES calculations, are estimated using a cylindrical model and are found to further reduce island widths significantly.
