The future of nuclear fission – with Professor M Bluck
Event Location:
Sir Alexander Fleming Building South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BX
public in-person lecture
The future of nuclear fission: Small modular reactors and advanced reactors?
Professor Michael Bluck - Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering, Imperial; Director of the Rolls-Royce Nuclear University Technology Centre (UTC.
Large nuclear reactors, with capacities of approximately 1000 MW have dominated civil nuclear fission for 4 decades, providing reliable low carbon ‘baseload’ electricity to a predictable fossil fuel dominated electricity grid. The drive to meet wider energy decarbonisation targets including transport, heating, industry, and now data centres, is seen as an imperative for the UK and elsewhere. The widespread deployment of renewables is an important element of this, but intermittency means that they are likely only part of the solution. As a result, the role of nuclear fission looks set to change.
Micro/Small modular reactors (SMRs), ranging from 5-400 MW, using existing water-cooled technologies, offer the potential for reduced build costs (and reduced bills!), flexibility, and can be focussed to specific applications. Looking further ahead, so-called ‘advanced modular reactors’ (AMRs) offer greater safety, increased support for deep-decarbonisation challenges, and in some cases a solution to the nuclear waste issue. In this talk, Professor Bluck will explain these technologies, what they can do for us, and where the challenges are.
Mike Bluck is Professor of Nuclear Engineering in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Imperial College. He is the Director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College, coordinating nuclear research, teaching and outreach, including the provision of advice to Government, Parliament, and industry across the whole spectrum of nuclear related issues.
He is also the Director of the Rolls-Royce Nuclear University Technology Centre (UTC) supporting research for both the nuclear submarine and Small-Modular Reactor (SMR) programmes. He has specific expertise in nuclear reactor design through the application of advanced computational methods to both nuclear fission and fusion engineering.
Event image courtesy of Imperial
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