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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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.
Rae-Joon Park, Kyoung-Ho Kang, Jong-Tae Kim, Ki-Young Lee, Sang-Baik Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 145 | Number 1 | January 2004 | Pages 102-114
Technical Paper | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3463
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimental and analytical studies on the penetration integrity of the reactor vessel have been performed to investigate the potential for reactor vessel failure during a severe accident in the Advanced Power Reactor 1400. Six tests have been performed to analyze the effects of the annulus water between the in-core instrumentation nozzle and the thimble tube, external vessel cooling, in-vessel pressure, melt mass, and melt flow for the maintenance of penetration integrity using alumina (Al2O3) melt as a simulant. The experimental results have been evaluated using the Lower head IntegraL Analysis computer Code (LILAC) and the Modified Bulk Freezing (MBF) model. The test results have shown that the water inside the annulus is very effective in the maintenance of the reactor vessel's penetration integrity because the water prevents the melt from ejection through penetration. The penetration in the no external vessel cooling case has more damage than that in the external vessel cooling case. An increase in in-vessel pressure from 1.0 to 1.5 MPa did not create penetration damage, but an increase in melt mass from 40 to 60 kg and melt flow due to the vessel geometry significantly increased the amount of penetration damage. The analytical results using the LILAC computer code and the MBF model are very similar to the experimental results for the ablation depth of the weld and the melt penetration distance through the annulus, respectively.
