The 32nd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE32) landed in Weihai, Shandong with a familiar premise and a sharper edge: make nuclear designs buildable—and provably so. Co‑hosted by ASME, JSME, and the Chinese Nuclear Society (CNS), ICONE remains the rare venue where elegant reactor concepts run a gauntlet of fabrication, inspection, and operations reality. The core program ran June 22–26, 2025 in Weihai, with the ASME listing the broader conference window as June 22–27—a small but telling reminder that schedules, like designs, stretch when you start counting workshops, tours, and paperwork.
At a high level, ICONE is a technical backbone for the field: tracks span operations & maintenance, codes and licensing, thermal‑hydraulics, CFD, advanced manufacturing, SMRs/advanced reactors, and code verification & validation—a map that mirrors the discipline’s pipeline from CAD to as‑built to licensed.
The engineering reality check
Modularization—with humility.
Glossy renders are cheap; lift plans, weld sequences, and inspection access are not. Sessions circling Track 10 (Advanced Methods of Manufacturing) and Track 6 (Codes, Standards, Licensing & Regulatory Issues) kept returning to the question that actually kills schedules: can a module be lifted, aligned, welded, inspected, and re‑worked (if needed) without cracking the whole assembly back open? A module isn’t modular if you can’t route cabling or place NDE probes once it’s set. ICONE’s agenda gave that problem pride of place.
Digital QA as competitive edge.
Talk of “digital twins” mattered less than audit trails. Teams leaned into Track 14 (Computer Code Verification & Validation) and Track 6 to show end‑to‑end documentation—from design requirements and CAD to shop travelers, weld data, and as‑built deviations—that reduce regulator back‑and‑forth and make EPCs breathe easier. Call it the quiet moat: if your V&V and inspection records are machine‑searchable and immutable, your time to approval shrinks. ASME frames ICONE as exactly this kind of technical, standards‑aligned forum.
Thermal‑hydraulics meets economics.
Optimization wasn’t academic show‑and‑tell. Track 7 (Thermal‑Hydraulics) and Track 8 (CFD) drilled into pressure‑drop and pump sizing choices that swing LCOE and maintenance intervals. Shaving turbulence where it doesn’t buy safety, and adding margin where it does, is how advanced designs survive cost review. ICONE’s track list makes clear that hydraulics and economics are now the same conversation.
Founder note: If you sell tools into nuclear EPC/QA, don’t pitch dashboards. Show exactly how your data flows into code compliance and inspection record systems—and how it shortens close‑out.
Why Weihai mattered this year
Beyond venue logistics, the host ecosystem signaled scale. The CNS served as main sponsor, acknowledging support from heavyweights including China Huaneng Group, CNNC, SPIC, CGN, and Harbin Engineering University—a lineup that reads like the procurement network for anyone planning serial builds. For attendees, that translated into factory‑first conversations about fixtures, tolerances, and proof of repeatability.
ICONE’s remit has always included conventional fleet issues—aging management, O&M, and upgrades—alongside next‑gen work on SMRs, advanced reactors, and fusion (Track 4). But this edition leaned harder into manufacturability and digital QA than the brand’s marketing lets on. The ASME page itself breaks out Advanced Methods of Manufacturing and V&V as core tracks—an implicit promise that the conference is about buildability as much as breakthroughs.
The themes that cut through
1) Design for Manufacture & Assembly (DfMA) grew up.
“Ship it as a module” only works if you’ve matched shop constraints, transport envelopes, and site cranes—and if field welds can be qualified before you pour foundations. Across papers and panels, DfMA looked less like a buzzword and more like a discipline, with checklists that covered NDE access, bolt torque clearances, and rework pathways. (If your model doesn’t know where the torque wrench lives, it’s not finished.) The manufacturing and codes tracks made that explicit.
2) Traceability is the new velocity.
Teams that can prove their build history—who welded what, with which filler, under what procedure, inspected by whom, with which calibrated instrument—can move faster because they argue less. V&V plus digital QA systems are evolving into regulatory UX: fewer meetings, fewer surprises, more confidence. ICONE provides the standards‑adjacent forum where those practices cross‑pollinate.
3) Thermal margins will decide winners.
In a market where pump power and maintenance hit OPEX, and pressure‑drop hits CAPEX (via component sizing), the winners are designs that tune flow without bloating parts lists. The presence of dedicated Thermal‑Hydraulics and CFD tracks keeps that debate anchored in data and validation rather than slides.
Tracks to watch (engineer’s edition)
Track 7/8: Thermal‑Hydraulics & CFD — Where cost, reliability, and safety jockey in the same equation.
Track 10: Advanced Methods of Manufacturing — From additive overlays to automated welds and inline metrology; where “serializable” stops being a dream.
Track 6: Codes, Standards, Licensing & Regulatory Issues — The reality check; the QA bible for EPCs and vendors.
Track 14: Computer Code V&V — The bridge from simulation claims to regulator‑ready evidence.
Track 4: SMRs, Advanced Reactors & Fusion — The design‑space frontier, with manufacturability pressure from day one.
Talent pipeline: a 60‑student bet
One quiet standout was ICONE’s student program: 60 selected students received complimentary conference registration, shared accommodation (up to six nights, June 21–26), banquet, workshops, and a technical tour. It’s not just generous; it’s strategic. The fastest way to industrialize next‑gen reactors is to seed graduates who speak QA, read drawings, and argue code.
Proceedings and permanence
If you weren’t in the room, proceedings are your friend. The ASME Digital Collection houses ICONE proceedings—bread‑and‑butter for practitioners who need the derivations, correlations, and test setups behind “we optimized this.” Several outlets also flagged that ICONE32 ran June 22–26 in Weihai and is hosted by CNS, underscoring the core program window noted above.
Bottom line
ICONE32 was less about the next glossy reactor slide and more about whether that slide can survive the factory, the field, and the file room. The agenda—and the culture around it—signal a discipline shifting from “can we design it?” to “can we build it, inspect it, and maintain it at scale?” For an industry chasing both new builds and life‑extension, that’s the only question that matters.
If you’re a founder selling into nuclear EPC/QA, bring traceability, standards mapping, and shop‑floor constraints to your demo—or don’t bother booking the flight.