GEMINI+ project will provide a conceptual design for a high temperature nuclear cogeneration system for supply of process steam to industry, a framework for the licensing of such system and a business plan for a full scale demonstration.
It will rely on modular High Temperature Gas cooled Reactor (HTGR) technology, which is a mature technology with several industrial prototypes that have been constructed and operated in the world. Therefore the time scale for the industrial deployment of such nuclear cogeneration systems is the decade. With available materials and technology, such a system can provide steam to industrial steam distribution networks presently operating on industrial sites up to 550˚C, simply substituting to fossil fuel fired cogeneration plants, without any need for adaptation of the steam distribution infrastructure or of the industrial applications. In the longer term, HTGR technology can be further developed to provide higher temperature process heat.
Based on its huge thermal inertia, its refractory fuel and core structural materials, on the use of helium, which is chemically inert, as coolant, and of a specific design limited to a few hundred Megawatts, modular HTGRs have a unique intrinsic safety concept preventing in any circumstances significant degradation of the nuclear fuel and consecutive radioactive releases, with no need of any human intervention.
Beyond industrial cogeneration, the flexibility, robustness and simple design of modular HTGR will allow extending application of the system developed by GEMINI+ to small isolated electric grids, to electric grids with increasing proportion of intermittent renewables, to new nuclear countries, etc.
LEI activities in the project
LEI take part in following work packages:
- WP1. Safety Approach and Licensing Framework
- WP3. Innovation and long-term perspective
Total cost: 4 409 974,55 EUR (LEI part: 28 167,50 EUR)
Coordinator: NARODOWE CENTRUM BADAN JADROWYCH NCBJ, Poland
Participants:
- AMEC FOSTER WHEELER NUCLEAR UK LIMITED, United Kingdom
- AREVA NP GMBH, Germany
- BRINKMANN GERD FRIEDRICH, Germany
- CENTRUM VYZKUMU REZ S.R.O., Czech Republic
- EMPRESARIOS AGRUPADOS INTERNACIONAL SA, Spain
- ENERGOPROJEKT-WARSZAWA SPOLKA AKCYNA, Poland
- FORTUM POWER AND HEAT OY, Finland
- INSTITUT DE RADIOPROTECTION ET DE SURETE NUCLEAIRE, France
- JAPAN ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Japan
- JRC -JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE- EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Belgium
- LIETUVOS ENERGETIKOS INSTITUTAS, Lithuania
- LAGRANGE SARL, France
- NGNP INDUSTRY ALLIANCE LIMITED, United States
- NUCLEAR RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY GROUP, Netherlands
- PROCHEM SA, Poland
- TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN, Germany
- TUV Rheinland Industrie Service GmbH, Germany
- UJV REZ, a.s., Czech Republic
- ULTRA SAFE NUCLEAR CORPORATION EUROPE, France
- KOREA ATOMIC ENERGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, South Korea
- GRUPA AZOTY SPOLKA AKCYJNA, Poland
- THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD, United Kingdom
- KUIJPER JAMES CRISTIAN, Netherlands
- BAATEN ENERGY CONSULTING, Netherlands
- TRACTEBEL ENGINEERING S.A., Belgium
Project Team
| Name, surname | Office | phone. | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
LEI Representative |
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| Raimondas Pabarčius | 424-AK | +37037401919 | Raimondas.Pabarcius@lei.lt |
|
Project Team |
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| Eugenijus Ušpuras | |||
| Algirdas Kaliatka | 223-AK | +37037401903 | Algirdas.Kaliatka@lei.lt |
| Sigitas Rimkevičius | 409-AK | +37037401924 | Sigitas.Rimkevicius@lei.lt |
| Juozas Augutis | |||
| Marijus Šeporaitis | 17-BRK | +37037401921 | Marijus.Seporaitis@lei.lt |
| Andrius Slavickas | 224-AK | +37037401810 | Andrius.Slavickas@lei.lt |