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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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.
D. Mueller, R. Raman, M. G. Bell, T. R. Jarboe, B. LeBlanc, R. Maqueda, S. Sabbagh, B. A. Nelson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 393-397
Technical Paper | The Technology of Fusion Energy - Experimental Devices and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1519
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Future toroidal magnetic confinement fusion plasma devices such as the Component Test Facility (CTF) require non-inductive toroidal current drive. A new method of non-inductive startup, referred to as transient coaxial helicity injection (Transient CHI), has been developed on the Helicity Injected Torus (HIT-II) experiment and the National Spherical Torus Experiment NSTX). In this method, plasma current is produced by discharging a capacitor bank between coaxial electrodes in the presence of toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields chosen such that the plasma rapidly expands into the chamber. When the injected current is rapidly decreased, magnetic reconnection occurs near the injection electrodes with the toroidal plasma current forming closed flux surfaces. In NSTX, transient CHI has demonstrated closed-flux current generation of up to 160 kA, without the use of a central solenoid. Detailed experimental measurements made on NSTX include fast time-scale visible imaging of the entire process.