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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.
D. Bahrami, G. Danko
Nuclear Technology | Volume 154 | Number 2 | May 2006 | Pages 247-264
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3732
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The long-term thermal, hydrologic, and psychrometric storage environment of nuclear waste is analyzed within an emplacement drift at Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada. Pertinent issues regarding temperature, relative humidity, and liquid water in contact with the waste packages are studied for a modified design currently considered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). For cost reduction and improved repository performance, the proposed design implements a slight modification in the waste package emplacement sequence and thermal load. The main change is an increase from 44 boiling water reactor (BWR) to 52 BWR fuel assemblies to reduce the number of waste packages for the same storage capacity. The results of the analysis show that acceptable temperature, moderate relative humidity, and no liquid water are expected on the hot waste package including the new BWR containers of the proposed design for the 5000-yr study period. The cold DOE high-level waste and the colder defense spent nuclear fuel containers in the alternative design will experience about the same amount of condensates as those in the DOE baseline design.