The use of nuclear energy for district heating

So far only one reactor - the Agesta reactor, south of Stockholm has been used to supply a sizeable district heating scheme. For 10 years this pilot scheme delivered 10 MW of electricity to the grid and initially 50 later 70 MW of heat to the suburb 'Farsta' of Stockholm, with a very good reliability record. As yet it has had no successors anywhere in the world. Agesta was of course too small to give good economics, but it gave valuable experience. As the citizens of Farsta had become accustomed to the smokeless nuclear heat, there were many protests from the public when Agesta was shut down to allow the nuclear effort in Sweden to be concentrated on bigger units. Since the oil crisis, nuclear district heating schemes have, however, been studied with increasing effort in a number of countries as one of the possible ways of achieving lower heat costs, conserving the limited oil and natural gas resources, and reducing air pollution. In this article the author describes the basis for assessing the performance and economics of such schemes. To do this it has been necessary to treat not merely the nuclear plants but also the entire system of transport distribution and storage of heat. Many of the numerical examples in this area have been taken from the Swedish scene with which the author is best acquainted but also many comments on conditions in other countries are included. Also the institutional obstacles which often stand in the way of a wider use -and the manner in which they are starting to be tackled by several countries - are discussed. The subject is treated in a manner which it is hoped will be useful also to those without previous experience of district heating. (author)