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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.
Jordan Crowell, Eleodor Nichita
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 4 | April 2023 | Pages 504-514
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2135334
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Small Canadian arctic communities rely on diesel generators for their electricity needs. Providing such generators with fuel year round presents logistical challenges because of inclement weather and the long transportation distances involved. This work presents the conceptual design of a 10-MW(thermal) microreactor that can be used to provide 3.5 MW of electricity as well as district heating to arctic communities. The reactor has a lead-cooled and graphite-moderated core with 13 vertical fuel channels containing high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel enriched to 10%. The core is enclosed in a unpressurized reactor vessel and is passively cooled through natural convection. Stirling engines are used to drive the electrical generators. The hot cylinders of the Stirling engines are located in the unpressurized reactor vessel and are heated directly by the primary coolant. Preliminary neutronic and thermal-hydraulic analyses of the core indicate that the design is technically feasible and that the reactor can function for 2 years and 9 months without refueling.