Nuclear and Water for Next-Generation Power

Supported by Evides Industriewater and Arup, this webinar examines the key priorities for water supply to the nuclear sector as it pushes towards a new, decentralised system.

Traditional nuclear has had a relatively straightforward relationship with water. Large coastal plants could draw on seawater for cooling, keeping the water equation manageable and the siting logic simple. However, as nuclear moves towards a more decentralised system, new nuclear projects will no longer be geographically free to situate by the coast - they will need to be built adjacent to what they power, bringing an entirely new set of water challenges with them.

This webinar considers the implications of this new model for water quality, supply, and availability. It will also consider what this means especially for already water-constrained areas like inland industrial clusters and drought-prone geographical locations.

As the UK accelerates its nuclear ambitions under the Advanced Nuclear Framework and Clean Power 2030, the industry faces a new set of water planning challenges: how to source and manage water in locations that don't have the geographic luxury of a coastline; how to handle the significant demineralised water demands of combined heat and power applications; and how to navigate abstraction licences on inland waterways where hands-off flow requirements add a further layer of risk and complexity.

This session will address:

• How does the decentralisation of nuclear, from large coastal reactors to SMRs deployed across industrial clusters, change the water infrastructure challenge?

• What are the implications for water sourcing, demineralised water demand, and cooling when nuclear is providing heat and power to industry rather than simply generating electricity for the grid?

• How should the nuclear sector approach environmental risk, particularly abstraction licensing and hands-off flow requirements, as new projects move to inland sites?

• How can integrated, long-term water and energy planning get ahead of these challenges rather than encountering them at the point of delivery?