ASP Online Seminars: Nuclear energy in the mix—Can it power Africa Sustainably ?

by Prof. Simon Connell (University of Johannesburg (ZA))

Tuesday 3 Nov 2020, 14:30 → 16:00 Africa/Abidjan

Join Zoom Meeting

https://cern.zoom.us/j/95193567359?pwd=TzdPQWsyWXlSTy9RNXFoa1FhL2xqQT09

Meeting ID: 951 9356 7359

Only South Africa and Egypt have Nuclear Reactors, or are building them, at present. The new era of Nuclear goes beyond electricity generation, and introduces process heat. This can be used for desalination, and also for powering the hydrogen and synthetic fuels economies. The size of the reactors also now scales from mere kWatts through to GigaWatts. The latter powers and stabilises large grids with clean energy. The midrange Small modular reactors or SMRs, can be deployed at city and mine level and for mini grids. The former can power remote outposts. All introduce a new level of safety - walk away safety, or be so-called fail safe. They are cost competitive over their 60-80 year lifespan. In these two talks, we will review the physics case, and also discuss the socio-economic context. We can then discuss what the opportunities for Africa are.

ASP_1103_Connell_NuclearEnergy1.mp4

Nuclear 1.pdf

SAIP 2019 Geant4 27.pdf

Students-Postdocs.pdf

YouTube_Connell_1103