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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.
R. A. Borrelli, Olivier Thivent, Joonhong Ahn
Nuclear Technology | Volume 174 | Number 1 | April 2011 | Pages 94-108
Technical Paper | Geochemistry and Ground Transport of RW | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A11683
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The study presented in this paper examines the potential of extruded bentonite as an additional barrier to radionuclide release to the far field. In the saturated repository, the bulk bentonite buffer surrounding the waste package will extrude into an intersecting fracture. Subsequent radionuclide release and transport into the fracture could be affected by the presence of this extrusion region. A model was previously established to describe the transport of radionuclides in the fracture that also includes this extruded bentonite. In this paper, we study model simulations for an idealized case of cesium transport through the extrusion region at elevated temperature. Extrusion speed will increase and cesium transport is enhanced with temperature; however, this extrusion region shows favorable performance in confining cesium at all temperatures. This study suggests that additional, rigorous modeling of this extrusion region as a barrier to radionuclide release with consideration of performance assessment studies is warranted.
