Authors: Z. Li, S. Han, H. Kim
Year: 2025
Industry: Nuclear & SMR
Keywords: Use FSE, Validation, Verification, Sensitivity
ABSTRACT
Nuclear renewable hybrid energy systems (NR-HESs) for multi-purpose applications are gaining increasing attention from the international nuclear energy community as well as energy system designers and policymakers—particularly in the context of deep decarbonization and net-zero targets. Over the past few decades, various modeling tools, such as mathematical formulations and Modelica, have been applied for analyzing the performance of NR-HESs; however, validating such results has been challenging due to the absence of a parallel simulation environment. In this study, Flownex—a high-fidelity 1D system simulation tool—was employed to enhance the verification and validation of NR-HES performance. A solar—nuclear combined centralized heating system was modeled using Flownex, showing improved electricity production (about 34%) and mitigation of the duck curve. Furthermore, a thermal and electricity (T&E) coupling strategy is implemented to integrate electrolyzers and reverse osmosis units for hydrogen and clean water production. Results indicated that hydrogen output increased by 31.80%, whereas clean water production improved by only 7.72%. The difference in coupling effectiveness is attributed to the higher sensitivity of hydrogen production to thermal energy.