Study of the Environmentally Friendliness of Heat Supply Using Small Modular Reactors

Small modular reactors (SMRs) can be used to solve the problem of environmental friendliness of thermal energy and provide consumers with powerful and safe heat generation. This conclusion was made by the Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT), which conducted a study to compare the environmental damage caused by nuclear generation and fossil fuel combustion.

The majority of the energy system consists of thermal power plants, which emit thousands of cubic meters of carbon dioxide when burning coal, oil, or gas. An alternative to carbon-based heat is nuclear energy. Full-scale nuclear power plants are steady and reliable producers of cheap heat, but the heat is a byproduct of their operation and only complements the main power of the thermal power plant and cannot be quickly provided to remote or large areas.

LDR-50 turbine-free technology for district heating can provide reliable heat generation for small, medium and large cities. A low-temperature reactor the size of a city bus, with heat exchange between its circuits due to natural convection, will produce 500-700 GWh of heat during a working cycle. A thermal power plant for this technology can consist of one or more independent reactor units, which allows for increased capacity. Due to its small size and passive safety systems, the boiler can be located directly in the city and use existing heating networks.

The research center’s specialists have assessed the carbon footprint of the heat generated by the LDR-50. As it turned out, the footprint is half that of traditional fuels. The study was based on a standard life cycle analysis methodology that considers energy and material flows at different stages of the life cycle, as well as associated releases.

In all aspects, nuclear district heating has proven to be more efficient and cleaner than widely used conventional fuels. Although uranium mining and processing have a negative impact on the environment, the impact on the amount of heat produced remains small, making SMR technology suitable and profitable for heat generation.