Policy makers should recognize nuclear plants alongside other utilities generating large amounts of wasted heat. The key obstacles are split incentives, electricity prices volatility, inexpediency of business models and regulatory frameworks, electioneering of local authorities and pessimist expectations with regards to project financing. The key forces are energy efficiency, decarbonization of the heat sector, operational competitiveness of future nuclear technologies, and synergies with renewable energies. This paper investigates the forces and obstacles to nuclear cogeneration by looking at the Loviisa 3 NDH project in Finland. By contrast with most of nuclear non-electric applications, nuclear district heating (NDH) has already been implemented in Europe, thus providing us with some valuable empirical insights. District heating (DH) is a suitable technology to decarbonize the European heat sector. Nuclear power plants generate electricity and a large amount of waste heat which is valuable for cogeneration. Finally, a few recommendations for efforts that can refine our understanding of the efficacy of rNPPs and rCIIs, and enable their development and deployment, are offered. Barriers to development and deployment of rCIIs and rNPPs are briefly summarized. It is concluded that some SMR and MMR concepts are likely to exhibit some or all of the Six Functional Requirements of rNPPs. Next, the results of a small survey and preliminary evaluation of the resilience attributes of some new Small Modular Reactor (SMR) and Micro Modular Reactor (MMR) nuclear power plant concepts are described. The two defining attributes and Six Functional Requirements of resilient Power Plants (rPPs) and resilient Nuclear Power Plants (rNPPs) are presented. The role of current-generation nuclear power plants in the Grid and in achieving Grid resilience is assessed. The concept of Grid resilience is next introduced.
The scope of natural hazards and malevolent human threats to the Grid are summarized. This paper examines the potential for nuclear power (and particularly the development of a new generation of resilient Nuclear Power Plants, or “rNPPS”) to transform Grid, CI, and SASC resilience via deployment of rNPPs in resilient Critical Infrastructure Islands, or “rCIIs.” The nature of society’s dependence on electricity and the Grid that generates and delivers electricity to consumers is briefly examined. Grid resilience the Grid’s ability to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and recover from major disruptions, and to rapidly restore electric service in the wake of them-is a matter of paramount importance. No element of a nation’s Critical Infrastructure (CI) is more essential than the electric Grid-the system that generates and delivers electricity to power homes, businesses, industry, other Critical Infrastructure, and a nation’s Strategic Asset Supply Chains (SASCs).