Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Week 2026

A forum for business leaders and policymakers focused on topics related to the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, including the design, fabrication, and inspection of boilers, pressure vessels, and nuclear power plant technologies. Code Week committee meetings are open to the public.

The technical program covers conventional and emerging power systems, including steam power systems (HRSGs, boilers, and steam turbines), gas turbines, concentrating solar power, geothermal energy, small modular reactors and advanced nuclear technologies, sCO₂ power cycles, advanced ultra-supercritical steam, and hydrogen and bulk thermal energy storage technologies. Topics include additive manufacturing, powder metallurgy hot isostatic pressing, advanced welding, cladding, fabrication processes, design approaches, material and welding qualification, standards development, and regulatory challenges. Component-specific issues include castings, forgings, blades, rotors, and valves. Materials and performance topics include creep, creep-fatigue, stress relaxation cracking, oxidation, corrosion, wear, erosion, high-temperature alloys and steels, failure analysis, life management, and fitness-for-service methodologies. Repair topics include weld repair, rejuvenation heat treatment, surface engineering, and refurbishment solutions. The conference program includes plenary sessions and breakout topical tracks. Accepted papers undergo peer review and are assigned DOIs. EPRI and ASM International jointly organize the conference.

The Committee on Refinery Equipment is responsible for more than 220 standards that form the basis of the API Individual Certification and Process Safety Site Assessment programs. Technical subcommittees cover aboveground storage tanks; corrosion and materials; heat transfer equipment; inspection and mechanical integrity; piping and valves; pressure-relieving systems; refractory materials; electrical equipment; instruments and control systems; mechanical equipment; petroleum refining technical data; and API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 Fitness-For-Service. The meeting addresses consensus-based standards and best practices for downstream operations, equipment, process safety, inspection, mechanical integrity, materials, corrosion, piping, valves, controls, and refinery engineering. Participation is open to parties with a direct and material interest in the subject of a standard.

The program brings together energy, industrial transformation, and advanced manufacturing, with cross-cutting themes of workforce development, standards, finance, AI and digital transformation, policy, and resilience planning. Roundtables, workshops, and demos are designed to address tradeoffs involving affordability, risk, standardization, and deployment speed. Program tracks include Powering Growth, with sample sessions on data-center power and cooling, new nuclear deployment, solar cost reduction, and scaling geothermal; Industry Reimagined, covering industrial heat electrification, next-generation steel, and EPC project-delivery costs and risks; Next-Gen Manufacturing, addressing hardware investment and bankability, additive manufacturing, and sustainability tradeoffs in product design; and Future Workforce, on nuclear workforce readiness, apprenticeships, and aligning training programs with real projects. Additional sessions are in development in areas including energy storage, fusion, industrial efficiency, critical minerals, and sustainability tradeoffs. The listed sessions are samples and subject to change.

The programming focuses on regulatory, policy, market, and legislative issues affecting the North American water power industry. It includes educational programming, information exchange, and advocacy activities involving industry, government agencies, regulators, resource agencies, Tribes, and NGOs. Advocacy Day programming is intended to help industry representatives engage policymakers on Capitol Hill about water power policy priorities.

The conference theme is “Going Critical: Creating a Durable Nuclear Resurgence.” Plenary discussions address how technology, finance, and public policy can sustain nuclear energy momentum, and how public confidence, domestic supply chains, workforce development, investment, and state leadership can support deployment at scale. John Wagner, Laboratory Director at INL, is a featured speaker; the opening plenary also includes U.S. NRC Commissioners Douglas Weaver and Bradley Crowell. The technical program features expert-led presentations and peer-reviewed research on advanced reactors, fuel cycle and waste management, reactor physics, fusion, AI and machine learning, materials science, instrumentation and controls, criticality safety, and robotics. Named session topics include nuclear energy markets, financing and economics; hybrid and integrated energy systems; maritime and data center applications; nuclear safeguards; cybersecurity; molten salt reactor fuels and materials; and advanced/additive manufacturing. Panels address uranium mining remediation, environmental review, digital twins, advanced reactor fuel supply and fabrication, and nuclear deployment pathways.

The program addresses safe, efficient, and responsible coal use, with sessions on emergency preparedness, procurement, reliability, AI-ready coal assets, unit-operation costs, workforce recruitment and knowledge retention, maintenance prioritization, combustible-dust hazards, ash use and marketability, heat-rate degradation, fire protection, and contractor safety. Roundtable themes include safety and health, boiler and combustion, coal handling, emergency response, incident prevention, uses for ash, and AI applications.

Presented by the Center for Hydrogen Safety, the conference addresses practical hydrogen safety challenges, regulations, codes and standards, and applied safety practices. Themes include process safety; quantitative risk analysis; explosions and hazards; materials integrity; hydrogen production and electrolysis; storage; transport and pipelines; fueling and mobility; incidents and lessons learned; public safety; emerging technology; and digital tools. Program topics include updates to CGA G-5.5 for hydrogen vent systems; compressed-hydrogen leak-rate requirements and testing practices; OSHA PSM and EPA RMP applicability and exemptions; hydrogen safety education; ultrasonic gas-leak detection; full-scale liquid-hydrogen tank failure testing; and detonation transmission in hydrogen-air mixtures. Other sessions address safer control architectures for hydrogen production, safety planning for large-scale projects and hydrogen hubs, abnormal-operation decision-making, loss-of-primary-containment indicators, green-hydrogen deployment at a public utility, risk assessment across H2–NH3–H2 supply chains, HyRAM+ modeling, operational data, vehicle-labeling standards, and hydrogen locomotive development.

Technical committee meetings provide insight into the rationale behind new and revised API upstream standards and proven practices for safe, sustainable, and environmentally sound operations. The event also covers API-sponsored research and development. The Committee on Standardization of Oilfield Equipment and Materials is responsible for approximately 400 standards, including approximately 275 that form the basis of the API Monogram Program. Listed committee areas include offshore structures, tubular goods, valve and wellhead equipment, drilling structures, well cements, field operating equipment, drilling, completion and fluids, fiberglass and plastic pipe, drilling well control equipment, subsea production equipment, quality, completion equipment, supply chain management, materials, offshore cranes, lifting and handling, and drilling and production technology. Some listed subcommittees may not meet at this event. Participation is open to interested parties.