SMRs Implementation Potentialities in the Greek Environment

Greece, like many other Countries at similar stage of development, fails to produce a trustworthy forecast for the evolution of the energy sector. Competent Services estimate that 'the future rebound of energy demand cannot be forecasted and therefore it is difficult for policy makers to define appropriate & realistic targets beyond 2020 for 2030'. Further, the current political approach of the Country's energetic problem a priori excludes any nuclear production of electricity. All of these parameters can change suddenly, especially due to the impact of external factors such as nuclear policy change in some major European Union Countries. Therefore, the tiny 'Nuclear Community' of the Country is striving to maintain an acceptable level of know-how in the nuclear sector and also wishes to formulate a documented proposal for the introduction of a nuclear component in the Country's energy production sector if the political conjuncture allows it. The final proposal should include a technologically advanced and cost-effective solution. If the proposed solution addresses more than one problem, the chances of adopting it are rising. A serious candidate solution could be the implementation of one or more SMRs that can easily fit to the electric grid of the Country and address particular problems such as the existence of many islands that are not connected to the mainland grid, the doubling of the population during the high season for tourism and the shortage of drinkable and irrigation water during summer. The SMRs option could also address the basic energetic problem of the Country resulting from the depletion of locally produced - but seriously harmful for the environment - lignite. The expensive option of increasing 'clean' energy imports results in higher production costs and a severe loss of competitiveness of the local Industry. The Greek team monitors the developments in the SMR sector. At the same time it develops simulation tools that allow to perform independent evaluations of various technical solutions and even to propose some attractive innovative design.(author).