Rapid assessment of integrated nuclear cogeneration projects using multi-criteria indices

Nuclear power plants provide clean, carbon free, stable, reliable electricity and can offer nonelectric products and services via cogeneration operations to multiple sectors. This contributes to decarbonization of the current energy and industrial systems, supports climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts and ensures sustainable development over the long term, according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) framework and the provisions of the Conference of Parties 21 (COP21) Paris Agreement, 2015. This work surveys the potential role of nuclear cogeneration projects in meeting these objectives based on the current technological landscape. It focuses on nuclear assisted desalination for freshwater production and electrolytic hydrogen production as the use cases and suggests an assessment framework for their holistic evaluation. New integrated metrics and multi-criteria performance indicators beyond the levelized cost of production are developed to quantify the likely multi-dimensional impacts of such projects. The use of these for screening alternatives illustrates the fact that depending on weightage given to different criteria, different technologies may appear to be better suited to deployment under given set of conditions. These metrics are expected to be useful for creation of a decision support system for deployment of nuclear cogeneration projects.

Automated summary

Nuclear cogeneration projects play a key role in decarbonization, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and long-term sustainability. The study focuses on nuclear-assisted desalination and electrolytic hydrogen production, proposing an assessment framework and performance indicators for comprehensive evaluation. New integrated metrics and criteria are developed to quantify the multidimensional impacts of such projects, aiding in the creation of a decision support system for their deployment.