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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.
Toru Hiraoka, Kiyoshi Sako, Hideki Takano, Takeshi Ishii, Mitsuru Sato
Nuclear Technology | Volume 93 | Number 3 | March 1991 | Pages 305-329
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34526
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A high-breeding fast reactor with fission product gas purge/tube-in-shell metallic fuel assemblies is proposed. Its reactor doubling time is <10 yr because fast reactors must have economical fuel breeding as well as economical electricity generation. The core has a high volume fraction of fuel (>50%) and realizes a very hard neutron spectrum. Thus, a fast-breeding 670-MW(electric) reactor with a high breeding ratio (1.84) and a short reactor doubling time (6.7 yr) is proposed. The structure of the fuel assembly, its fabrication, and the fission product gas purging mechanism are assessed and the new fuel assembly concept is determined to be feasible. Purging of the fission product gas does not affect the shielding requirement and can be managed by a small-scale cover gas treatment system because of the good fission product retention characteristics of the sodium in the fuel assemblies. The entire reactor configuration, including the intermediate heat exchangers, was assessed utilizing conventional reactor components.
