Sustainable Nuclear energy : toward Gen IV reactors

It is becoming more and more accepted that fighting global warming will require decarbonizing industrial economies which will imply an increased electrification with an electricity with a low CO2 footprint. In this context, as long as industrial processes will require centralized energy production  and as long as massive electricity storage will not be available,  Nuclear energy will play a key role in this process.

 It also is more and more evident that energy sovereignty is a major issue in a world with increasing tensions, and that the questions of Uranium resources, as well as the question of waste management will become more and more pregnant. This will be even more an issue that developing economies will require massive electricity production.

These concerns are at the core of the Gen IV international project for a sustainable nuclear energy production. The seminar will present the strategy which has been the one in France, Sodium cooled  fast breeder reactors, the reasons for this choice, its historical developments and  the political fluctuations around it.