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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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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.
Yongliang Xiong, Yifeng Wang (SNL)
Proceedings | International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management 2019 (IHLRWM 2019) | Knoxville, TN, April 14-18, 2019 | Pages 186-188
Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is presently being stored at reactor sites awaiting shipment offsite. Analyses conducted for the US Department of Energy (DOE) to evaluate potential strategies for removing SNF from reactor sites use detailed, agent-based models of SNF storage and transportation. Often these models include assumptions to facilitate analysis. Some assumptions might rely on expert judgement, and others are implicitly made when analysis is performed. One common, implicit assumption is that there is no preferred time of year to load casks. Another assumption is that operating reactor sites can only load a fixed number of casks per year. An examination of cask loading dates might improve the quality of these and other assumptions and provide further insight into industry practice. Investigators reviewed dates listed in cask registration letters submitted to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The cask loading dates were then evaluated to identify patterns that would shed light on the validity of assumptions. First, the typical number of casks loaded in a campaign was examined. Next, the time between cask loadings was examined. Seasonal variations were evaluated, along with variations that appear to occur as a result of plant outage cycles. Finally, some larger loading campaigns were noted. Loading campaign size and the relationship between loading campaigns and outages followed notable trends. For smaller sites with fewer reactors, a relatively large degree of scheduling flexibility appears to be present. However, for sites having more reactors, less flexibility is observed, and the relationship between outages and dry cask loading is clearly apparent. It is clear that fewer casks are loaded during the spring and fall, when outages are more likely. Furthermore, cask loadings are reduced during the winter months.