The feasibility and performance of nuclear energy coupled with Negative Emission Technology (NET)
processes were investigated in this report. Three overarching questions from nuclear NET systems guided this research:
- which NET would be able to use heat and/or electricity from nuclear power plants (NPPs);
- what is the performance and cost of a nuclear NET system; and
- what would be the market outlook for this system?
Among the various NETs that are actively being developed, several were found to potentially benefit
from coupling with an NPP via
- large amounts of decarbonized and constant-output electricity;
- free waste heat or cheap low-temperature heat; or
- high-temperature heat.
NPPs were found to be compatible with Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems, and a detailed techno-economic analysis of coupled NPP&DAC systems was performed. Preliminary analysis also indicated that biomass and water-based NETs are potentially compatible with NPPs, but further work is needed to quantify the performance of these nuclear NET systems.
Assessment of Nuclear Energy to Support Negative Emission Technologies
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