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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.
Zhiyao Liu, Qichao Zhao, Liming Zhang, Xuegang Zhang, Jieyun Fan, Qingju Wang, Ping Wu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 4 | April 2021 | Pages 575-581
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1784683
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The safety of the main control room in a nuclear power plant is an important research topic with practical implications. In this study, we used virtual reality technology and multimodal data to investigate the effect of experience on operators’ responses under emergency conditions. We asked participants to perform a series of tasks in a virtual fire emergency environment while simultaneously recording their behavioral, eye-tracking, and physiological data. The results showed a significant effect of experience on participants’ behavioral performance, total fixation time, and skin electrical response. Participants from a high-experience group showed a longer total fixation duration and lower skin conductance level compared to those from a low-experience group. This suggested that experience could have an impact on operators’ visual information extraction and mental stress under emergency situations in an NPP. Our study also provides a reference method for using virtual experimental settings and objective measurements for future human factor research in the main control room of an NPP.