Creativity session at INSTN for the opening of the ENERGY TRANSITION and FLEXIBILITY module of the prestigious international Master Nuclear Energy, master's degree at Université Paris-Saclay.
⚛️ The many students of the 2025 class took part in the short game to imagine a hashtag#nuclear of the future that fits perfectly into a global energy system.
➡️ The instruction was to maximize flexibility and synergies (systemic view of the entire energy system).
💡 Let's see the students' work
1️⃣ Dual energy production ⚛️: high temperature reactor, power grid and hydrogen production
- Electricity distribution during peaks hours;
- Use of the energy to produce hydrogen (for buses…) if the grid doesn’t need all the electricity produced (an AI predicts the energy demand).
2️⃣ Cogeneration for agriculture🍓
- Tertiary hot water recovery for crops (exotic fruits such as avocado, pineapple, etc.) would be installed next to the nuclear power plant, thus avoiding fresh fruit imports.
3️⃣ Double Jeopardy (double challenge) 🌊
- A nuclear power plant located on the coast near a large city that needs clean water;
- Desalination 🧂 of sea water by reverse osmosis which requires large amounts of electricity and distillation which requires large amounts of heat.
- The nuclear power plant produces electricity for the grid and electricity and heat for the water while wind and solar produce electricity.
4️⃣ Accelerator driven reactor: subcritical reactor + neutron coming from a particle accelerator
- Energy production and waste management to reduce nuclear waste via transmutation;
- Operation on thorium to minimize dependency on uranium;
- Almost no plutonium production;
5️⃣ Nano nuclear reactor for residencies: The Egg 🥚, an At Home nuclear reactor
6️⃣ 🚢 Super tanker
- Fuel autonomy;
- Extended mission duration;
- Less time in the harbor;
- Logistical safety;
- Independent of uranium price fluctuation.
🙏 Thanks to them and good luck in the module with my colleagues: Jean-Michel Do (Nuclear flexibility), Quoc Tuan Tran (Grid Flexibility), Nicolas LAMAISON (Cogeneration), Bastien Denisart (Hydrogen), Antonio Vayá Soler (Net Zero Pathways). 🙏 Thanks to Lionel Bion and Anne Boutu
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