Technology Review and Safety Assessment of Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid Energy Systems With Light-Water Small Modular Reactors

Abstract An increase of renewable energy share is expected in the next future to drive the energy transition towards a low-carbon future energy mix. However, renewable energy sources are intermittent and non-dispatchable by nature and could lead to grid stability issues. For this reason, the idea of coupling renewable energy sources with Nuclear Energy (in particular, Small Modular Reactors) in the so-called Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid Energy Systems has gained more attention during the past years. During the second half of 2022 a European project belonging to the Horizon Europe program, namely TANDEM, has started to investigate the safety aspects of Light-Water Small Modular Reactors when introduced in a Hybrid System scenario. This paper aims at summarizing some of the first outcomes of the TANDEM project regarding the technology assessment of a Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid Energy System with Light-Water Small Modular Reactors, with preliminary considerations about safety of nuclear cogeneration. To this purpose, the main components of a general Hybrid system are considered, i.e., Light-Water Small Modular Reactor, low and high temperature hydrogen production, thermal and electrical storages and seawater desalination, aiming at providing general rules to perform the future modelling of the system in the frame of the project.