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Conference Spotlight
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.
John D. Bess, Leland M. Montierth, Oliver Köberl, Luka Snoj
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 178 | Number 3 | November 2014 | Pages 387-400
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-13
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Benchmark models were developed to evaluate 11 critical core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS pebble bed experimental program. Various additional reactor physics measurements were carried out as part of this program; currently, only a total of 37 absorber rod worth measurements have been evaluated as acceptable benchmark experiments for cores 4, 9, and 10. Dominant uncertainties in the experimental Keff for all core configurations come from uncertainties in the 235U enrichment of the fuel, impurities in the moderator pebbles, and the density and impurity content of the radial reflector. Calculations of Keff with MCNP5 and ENDF/B-VII.0 neutron nuclear data are greater than the benchmark values but are within 1% and also within the 3σ uncertainty, except for core 4, which is the only randomly packed pebble configuration. Repeated calculations of keff with MCNP6.1 and ENDF/B-VII.1 are lower than the benchmark values but are within 1% (∼3σ), except for cores 5 and 9, which calculate lower than the benchmark eigenvalues by <4σ. The primary difference between the two nuclear data libraries is the adjustment of the absorption cross section of graphite. Simulations of the absorber rod worth measurements are within 3σ of the benchmark experiment values. The complete benchmark evaluation details are available in the 2014 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments.