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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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.
Mark Newton, Mike Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 1122-1126
National Ignition Facility-Laser Facilities | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963764
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF), being built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will utilize a 1.8 MJ glass laser to study inertial confinement fusion. This laser will be driven by a power conditioning system which must simultaneously deliver over 260 MJ of electrical energy to the nearly 7700 flashlamps. The power conditioning system is divided into independent modules that store, shape and deliver pulses of energy to the flashlamps.
The NIF power conditioning system which is being designed and built by Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) in collaboration with LLNL and industrial partners, is a different architecture from any laser power conditioning system previously built at LLNL. This particular design architecture was chosen as the most cost-effective way to reliably deliver the large amount of energy needed for NIF.
This paper will describe the development and design of the NIF power conditioning system. It will discuss the design objectives as well as the key design issues and technical hurdles that are being addressed in an ongoing component development and system validation program being supported by both SNL and LLNL.
