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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
Standards Program
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.
F. D’Auria
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 5 | May 2023 | Pages 987-999
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2178874
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The development of the AP-1000 design and of its precursor the AP-600 started in the aftermath of the Chernobyl event (1986) when the need came from the scientific and technological community for a resilient system against deliberate threats by humans. The “passive system” design concept became relevant. The first AP-1000 entered into operation around 3 decades after that event. This paper discusses the issue of how much the progress in nuclear science and technology since the end of the 1980s has affected the AP-1000 design. Five interconnected areas are identified: (1) reliability of passive systems, (2) scaling and uncertainty, (3) coupling between three-dimensional neutron physics and thermal hydraulics, (4) consideration of large-break loss-of-coolant accidents, and (5) simulation of instrumentation and control systems. All these areas are relevant for the AP-1000 and standard pressurized water reactors; however, the areas (1) and (2) have specific applicability for the AP-1000 and constitute the main concerns of this paper. The conclusion from qualitative investigation is that the safety demonstration of the AP-1000 did not take full benefit from progress in these areas, namely, inadequacies characterize the scaling database and the processes for determining the reliability of thermal-hydraulic passive systems did not receive proper attention.