MIT-Japan Study: Future of Nuclear Power in a Low- Carbon World: The Need for Dispatchable Energy

Report Date: September 2017
Appendices: No

Executive Summary

To address the question of how do we create an economic low-carbon power system with minimum burden to the society, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Tokyo, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Institute of Applied Energy, the Japan Atomic Energy Authority and the Institute for Energy Economics Japan undertook a series of studies to address how to make this transition in the context of the Future of Nuclear Power. The goal of affordable energy in a low-carbon world requires low-carbon dispatchable energy sources to replace fossil fuels in that role. Wind and solar photovoltaic are intermittent energy resources (IRs) that require a dispatchable energy source to provide electricity at times of low wind and solar conditions. Nuclear power plants can provide dispatchable heat and electricity by varying power levels but operating at partial load significantly increases the cost of energy.

The mismatch between efficient energy production (fully utilizing the output of nuclear, wind and solar) and demand in a low-carbon world can be partly met by energy storage technologies. The central challenge is cost. Nuclear reactors generate heat that is converted to electricity whereas wind and solar photovoltaic generate electricity directly. The cost of storing heat is an order of magnitude less than the cost of storing electricity (batteries, pumped storage, etc.); thus, the opportunity to develop economic heat storage technologies coupled to nuclear to provide a replacement for fossil fuels in their central role of providing economic dispatchable energy to match energy production with demand. Hourly to seasonal heat storage may enable base-load nuclear reactors to provide variable electricity—an expanded role for nuclear energy that becomes the enabling technology for IRs by economically solving the storage challenge. Solar thermal systems also provide heat and couple to thermal storage systems but are limited to areas of high-quality direct sunlight.

The other requirement for deep decarbonization is to develop non-fossil energy carriers (hydrogen, ammonia, non-fossil hydrocarbons) to replace fossil fuels as transportable fuels and in other applications. This will require development of multiple technologies with integrating heat (nuclear) with electricity (nuclear, wind and solar photovoltaic) energy systems for cost effective solutions. Many of the most efficient industrial processes require heat input. The Challenge to Create a Low-Carbon Energy System.

To maintain standards of living in the developed world and to eliminate poverty worldwide will require massive quantities of energy and massive growth in energy resources. Because energy production is about 8% of the gross national product (GNP) of the world, it is essential to avoid large increases in energy costs as that would significantly decrease human welfare. Concerns about climate change have resulted in the goal of deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector. If resources were unlimited, it would be technically easy to create a low-carbon energy system. The low-carbon energy challenge is that energy production consumes a significant fraction of the world GNP and thus there are severe economic constraints for any low-carbon system that replaces our use of fossil fuels.

Program:     ANP : Advanced Nuclear Power Program

Type:     TR 

RPT. No.: 171