Process Intensification in Nuclear Energy Systems: Challenges, Opportunities, and Limitations in the Context of Energy Transition and Sustainability

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a structured framework for evaluating process intensification in nuclear systems, useful for engineering design research.

🏢実務担当者:Offers insights into efficiency improvements and safety trade-offs for nuclear plant design and operation.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the potential of nuclear energy in decarbonization, but does not address policy specifics.

Nuclear energy is widely recognized as a key low-carbon technology capable of delivering dispatchable electricity and high-grade thermal energy. However, its long-term role within evolving energy systems is increasingly conditioned by requirements related to efficiency, flexibility, safety, and integration with other energy vectors. In this context, Process Intensification offers a promising design paradigm for enhancing system performance through compactness, improved transport phenomena, and functional integration. This review critically examines the application of Process Intensification principles to nuclear energy systems, with a specific focus on identifying where intensification can provide measurable benefits, where fundamental limitations arise, and how trade-offs between performance, safety, and sustainability must be managed. Rather than presenting a broad overview of the energy transition, the analysis is structured around Process Intensification─relevant mechanisms, system-level constraints, and quantitative performance indicators. A Process Intensification–Safety–Sustainability evaluation framework is proposed to systematically assess intensification strategies in nuclear contexts. The framework integrates three interdependent dimensions: process performance, safety implications, and sustainability outcomes. In addition, an illustrative cogeneration case study is presented to compare conventional and intensified heat transfer configurations, highlighting improvements in thermal efficiency, reductions in system footprint, and associated safety considerations. The results indicate that Process Intensification can enable significant enhancements in energy utilization, system integration, and modularity, particularly in emerging reactor concepts and hybrid energy systems. However, its implementation is inherently constrained by material limitations, regulatory requirements, and the need to preserve robust safety margins. The findings underscore that the value of Process Intensification in nuclear systems lies not only in performance enhancement but in its ability to redefine system architectures within strict operational and safety boundaries. This work provides a focused and critical synthesis of Process Intensification in nuclear energy systems, contributing to a more rigorous integration of intensification principles into nuclear engineering design and evaluation.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.6c00421first seen 2026-07-31 05:22:30