Nuclear energy and its role in the energy transition

by Prof. Walter Ambrosini (Dept. Civil and Industrial Engineering, Pisa University, Italy)

Friday 25 Nov 2022, 11:00 → 13:00 Europe/Rome

C. Villi meeting room

Nuclear energy is presently at the centre of a serious debate, in European Union and other countries, in relation to its capability to support the energy transition needed to mitigate the increasingly noticeable climate changes, along with the use of renewable energy sources. However, misconceptions and false myths are still present, which need to be busted for promoting the needed public acceptance in western countries, able to support the long-term energy plans necessary to the deployment of the nuclear energy option. The seminar, starting from the presently proposed European policy in relation to nuclear energy, and to its role as a stable source needed to support the energy transition, summarizes in short, the bases of nuclear energy production by fission, with a focus to all the principles and systems nowadays adopted to assure an ever increasingly nuclear reactor safety by minimizing risks, either at the design stage, or during operation. The Generation-III reactors currently at the edge of technology, the main Generation-IV concepts under study worldwide, as well as the recently considered Small and Modular Reactors (SMRs) at the frontier of the nuclear engineering developments are then briefly described. Considerations about nuclear reactor configurations that can be considered more suitable for supporting the energy transition, in the near as well as mid-term, complete the discussion.

Link zoom: https://infn-it.zoom.us/j/81443907480
ID riunione: 814 4390 7480