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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.
Kieran Dolan, Guiqiu Zheng, David Carpenter, Steven Huang, Lin-Wen Hu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 4 | May 2020 | Pages 398-403
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1712993
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Advanced reactor applications that use a molten fluoride salt coolant and graphite moderator are under consideration as next-generation energy technologies. For molten salts with lithium or beryllium, such as flibe (2LiF-BeF2), the production of tritium from neutron irradiation is a significant technical challenge. Understanding the expected quantities and mechanisms for tritium retention in graphite is important for designing tritium management strategies in these advanced reactors. In this work, the tritium content of IG-110U graphite from a 2013 in-core flibe irradiation experiment was measured by leaching in water and thermal desorption. Five total samples were tested, with an average measured tritium content per salt-contacting surface area of 3.83 ± 0.25 Ci/m2. The tritium measured from the thermal desorption experiments was primarily in a water-insoluble form. Compared to the overall tritium generation during the irradiation, the total amount of retention in graphite predicted by the desorption measurements is significant.