Prospects of implementation of small modular reactors in the power system of Ukraine

Abstract

Ukraine's declared goals of sustainable, environmentally acceptable energy development, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement require the preferential development of nuclear and renewable energy. At the same time, in the conditions of the current shortage of maneuverable capacities, the increase of stochastic generation volumes from renewable energy sources in the power system and the decommissioning of maneuverable coal-fired power units in accordance with international environmental obligations determines the need to study the possibilities of implementing new nuclear power plant technologies in the IPS of Ukraine, which will be able to participate in daily maneuvering. The article provides an overview of the state of development and implementation of the first NPP projects with small modular reactors of the American companies NuScale Power and Holtec International. It is shown that the national nuclear legislation does not single out MMR as a separate group of nuclear installations and does not take into account their features, which makes it necessary to carry out a thorough professional comparative analysis of the current regulatory framework of Ukraine and other countries on this issue, based on the results of which a decision should be made regarding the need to develop special regulatory requirements for MMR and determine the scope of application of existing regulatory documents. The results of the calculations of the forecast structure of generating capacities of IPS of Ukraine for the period up to 2040 are given, which showed that the construction in Ukraine of 3 powerful advanced NPP power units and the introduction of 1.5 GW of the power units with MMR, which can be used in daily power change modes, with the using of 13 GW of the baseload existing nuclear power units while reducing the capacity of existing coal-fired power units to 5 GW with their reconstruction to meet the requirements of the National Emission Reduction Plan and the growing volume of renewable generation are able to ensure the power balance system and reduce pollutant emissions by at least 50% and greenhouse gases by up to 30%. Keywords: small modular reactor, technical standards, legal and regulatory framework, power system, operating mode.