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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.
Blair P. Bromley, Bronwyn Hyland
Nuclear Technology | Volume 186 | Number 3 | June 2014 | Pages 317-339
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-85
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
New reactor concepts to implement thorium-based fuel cycles have been explored to achieve maximum resource utilization. Pressure tube heavy water reactors (PT-HWRs) are highly advantageous for implementing thorium-based fuels because of their high neutron economy and online refueling capability. The use of heterogeneous seed/blanket core concepts in a PT-HWR where higher-fissile-content seed fuel bundles are physically separate from lower-fissile-content blanket bundles allows more flexibility and control in fuel management to maximize fissile utilization (FU) and conversion of fertile fuel. The lattice concept chosen was a 35-element bundle made with a homogeneous mixture of reactor-grade PuO2 (∼67 wt% fissile) and ThO2, with a central zirconia rod to reduce coolant void reactivity. Several annular and checkerboard-type heterogeneous seed/blanket core concepts with plutonium-thorium–based fuels in a 700-MW(electric)–class PT-HWR were analyzed, using a once-through thorium cycle. Different combinations of seed and blanket fuel were tested to determine the impact on core-average burnup, FU, power distributions, and other performance parameters. WIMS-AECL Version 3.1 was used to perform lattice physics calculations using two-dimensional, 89-group integral neutron transport theory, while RFSP Version 3.5.1 was used to perform the core physics and fuel management calculations using three-dimensional two-group diffusion theory. Among the different core concepts investigated, there were cores where the FU was up to 30% higher than that achieved in a PT-HWR using natural uranium fuel bundles. There were cores where up to 67% of the Pu was consumed, cores where up to 43% of the energy was produced from thorium, and cores where up to 363 kg/year of 233U was produced in the discharged fuel.