Nuclear Cogeneration of Heat and Power: An Asset for Sustainable Development. Why and how - An European Approach

The targets of COP21 concerning climate change cannot be reached by decarbonization of electricity generation alone: CO2 emissions from fossil fuel based production of industrial process heat, of the same order of magnitude, need also to be reduced. Sustainability of industrial activities, strongly depending on the availability and cost of fossil fuels is also at stake. Many industry branches are intensive high temperature heat consumers, and nuclear energy could appropriately contribute to reduce their emissions and their dependence on fossil fuel, with nuclear systems operating in cogeneration mode, at higher temperature than present LWRs, namely HTGR in the near-term and other Generation IV reactors in the longer-term. Poland is launching a programme for developing High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) technology delivering power and process heat to its industry. This programme can rely on a solid background of European HTGR technology with international collaboration. In this context, the Nuclear Cogeneration Industrial Initiative (NC2I), one of the 3 pillars of the (European) Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNETP) is currently running GEMINI+, a project supporting the Polish programme. GEMINI+ is defining the design bases of a European modular HTGR cogeneration plant to be coupled to process heat applications and proposes a licensing framework for such systems. The GEMINI+ design is the first step towards demonstration of nuclear cogeneration in Poland, thus paving the way for more widespread deployment worldwide. GEMINI+ is jointly performed with partners from the US (NGNP Industry Alliance), from South Korea (KAERI) and from Japan (JAEA). These international partners have the same objective of developing industrial nuclear cogeneration and their contributions support the demonstration project in Poland. The GEMINI+ design is flexible, not exclusively addressing the specific requirements of Polish industry, but meeting similar market needs in Europe and overseas. Modular HTGRs are Small Modular Reactors (SMR), with an appropriate size for heat needs in the (petro-)chemical industry, for seawater desalination, air conditioning, etc. They are even readily integrated in small and medium size electric grids with little interconnection and can help compensate the variability of renewable energy sources. (author).