ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2025
Nuclear Technology
September 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
Yina Zhang, Chao Zhang, Jin Jiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 177 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 98-106
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13330
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this study, computational fluid dynamics simulations are carried out to predict the thermal-hydraulic behavior of supercritical fluids in the subchannel of supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR) fuel channels. The thermal-hydraulic behavior of supercritical water in triangular array and square array fuel rod bundles is studied numerically. The effects of various parameters including the pitch-to-diameter ratio and Reynolds number on the flow and the heat transfer characteristics are investigated. It is found that the turbulent mixing coefficient of supercritical water in subchannels is strongly dependent on the fluid bulk temperature and pitch-to-diameter ratio in the vicinity of the pseudo-critical point. To have a higher overall turbulent mixing coefficient, a pitch-to-diameter ratio less than 1.2 is recommended for the design of SCWR. The turbulent mixing coefficient correlation for the triangular array rod bundle is developed in this study based on the numerical results. However, the correlation for the mixing coefficient for the square array rod bundle cannot be expressed as a general correlation.
