94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
REVIEW article
Front. Nucl. Eng.
Sec. Nuclear Reactor Design
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnuen.2025.1501247
Nuclear Power Technology Issues: an analysis and informed opinions
Provisionally accepted- 1 Centre de Recherche sur les Risques et les Crises, ParisTech École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, Université de Sciences Lettres de Paris, Sophia Antipolis, France
- 2 Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
- 3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- 4 ID 83402, Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States
- 5 University of Pisa, Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
“We have opinions, we make observations, we change our opinions” Stephen Senn, ‘Dicing with Death’, 2003 The purpose of the present paper is to inform debate and provide snapshot opinions about challenges and solutions for the development of nuclear fission technology. We review the socio-political and techno-economic status of nuclear power technology, which, as almost always during its history, is on an edge from which it may jump to success, or fall into the abyss of oblivion. Recent nuclear projects and claims are reviewed in the light of the lessons learned from the international aircraft and minerals processing industries on manufacturing, construction and technology maturity. For new nuclear reactor projects and designs these experiences assist in systematically and objectively quantifying investor risk. We strongly recommend the deployment of nuclear fission for energy production everywhere in the world, depending on the scale and dominant economic factors.
Keywords: Nuclear Fission, Techno - economic comparison, PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor), BWR (boiling water reactor), SMR (small modular reactor)
Received: 24 Sep 2024; Accepted: 29 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zio, Shirvan, Duffey and D'Auria. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Enrico Zio, Centre de Recherche sur les Risques et les Crises, ParisTech École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, Université de Sciences Lettres de Paris, Sophia Antipolis, France
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.