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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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.
P. K. Job, K. Subba Rao, M. Srinivasan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 84 | Number 3 | July 1983 | Pages 293-298
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE83-A17798
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It was shown earlier that nonsolvated crystalline BeH2 could serve as an effective moderator in reducing nuclear critical masses below minima achievable in CH2-moderated systems on account of its (n, 2n) reactivity bonus and higher hydrogen number density. The 9Be cross sections used in these calculations were found to overestimate the (n, 2n) multiplication. The precise (n, 2n) contribution to system reactivity and critical mass in the light of the latest 9Be cross-section data are evaluated. The results show that in the case of BeH2-moderated and BeO-reflected systems, five additional neutrons are born in the reaction multiplication in beryllium per 100 fission neutrons released in the core, resulting in a reactivity gain of ∼4%. The corresponding reduction in critical mass is ∼16%. The critical masses calculated with corrected 9Be cross sections show that the crystalline BeH2-moderated and BeO-reflected systems apparently have the smallest possible theoretical critical masses, namely, 0.180, 0.137, and 0.105 kg for 235U, 233U, and 239Pu, respectively.