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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.
M. M. R. Williams
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 4 | April 2019 | Pages 327-345
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1531620
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A number of approximate probability distribution functions (pdf’s) for the neutron density are examined with reference to low source startup. The most accurate method for determining the safe source strength, to reduce the likelihood of a rogue transient during startup, is that arising from the Pál-Bell equations. When these equations are extended to include space and energy dependence the numerical work becomes extensive. A pdf is developed which gives results that compare favorably with those from the exact solution but requires very much less numerical work. The method is applicable to space- and energy-dependent problems. Extensive numerical examples are given of the new method and of others which have been proposed over the years. In addition, we explore other approximations, unrelated to the generating function, that can lead to substantial computational savings. We have additionally described the principles behind, and provided a simple review of, the low source algorithm from which anyone unfamiliar with low source concepts can benefit.