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.
G. Mignot, S. Balderama (Oregon State Univ), N. Woolstenhulme (INL), W. Marcum (Oregon State Univ)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 892-903
Pulse generated in the Transient Reactor Test facility at Idaho National Laboratory can reach a minimum full width at half maximum of 100 ms. for a maximum power of 5500 MW with the current configuration. To reproduce conditions of a Reactivity Insertion Accident postulated for Light Water Reactor, the width of the pulse shall decrease down below 50 ms. to increase even more the maximum power. To reach this goal, it is intended to initiate higher power transient that could quickly be clipped to maintain the total energy deposition within the 2500 MJ limit of the reactor operation license. One of the pulse clipping options under consideration is the implementation of a fast-negative reactivity insertion system by injecting helium 3 in the core. Initial calculation shows that to ensure fast clipping of the pulse, the new system, in a form of a cartridge pre-inserted in the core, shall undergo a quick pressurization from near vacuum to minimum density of 2.2 kg/m3 in less than 5 ms. The HENRI (Helium 3 Negative Reactivity Insertion) facility has been designed and built at the Oregon State University to test the feasibility of such system, design a fast response pressurization system and test the repeatability of the process. To support this task, preliminary CFD calculations are performed. In this first stage of the project, only the gas dynamics part of the process is considered. Initial results show that the ultimate atomic density could physically be reached within the 5 ms. limit assuming an ultra-fast opening device.