Analysing the potential of Small Modular Reactor in local low-carbon energy systems

Small Modular reactors (SMRs) have the potential to address various energy and environmental challenges beyond electricity generation. Considered at a local or regional scale, SMRs can be fully integrated in innovative hybrid energy systems, including variable renewables and nuclear energy in the form of electricity, heat, hydrogen, energy storage systems, heat networks, and power grids. These integrated energy systems are designed to meet the energy demand of one or more end users. They are currently under development to be ready for commercial deployment for the energy transition. The Euratom TANDEM project (“Small Modular ReacTor for a European sAfe aNd Decarbonized Energy Mix”), coordinated by CEA, developed tools and methodologies between 2022 and 2025 to study the integration of SMRs within hybrid energy systems, and implemented them in illustrative use-cases.

The CEA IRESNE R&D institute invites applications for a post-doctoral position whose aim is to continue the work initiated as part of the TANDEM project by analysing more complex use-cases. The post-doctoral fellow will participate in an international collaboration to define a use case based on the projected energy needs of a large port in Eastern Europe and to propose low-carbon energy systems incorporating SMRs. To this end, these energy systems will be designed through techno-economics and environmental optimization using the Cairn tool developed by CEA. The performances of these energy systems will then be assessed using simulators developed with the Modelica-based TANDEM library.

For the CEA's own purposes, the post-doctoral fellow may also work on the definition and analysis of other relevant use-cases, such as energy supply for an island in the French overseas territories.

This post-doctoral work will be carried out in close interaction between the designers of low carbon energy systems at CEA/IRESNE in Cadarache and the Cairn developers at CEA/LITEN in Grenoble.

Decomposition of Fission Fragment Energy from Microscopic Approaches to Provide Input Data for the FIFRELIN Code

The FIFRELIN code (FIssion FRagment Evaporation modeLINg), developed since 2009 at the CEA, simulates the formation and decay of nuclear fission fragments. It contributes to the enrichment of the European nuclear data library JEFF, which is used for reactor simulations. The calculation proceeds in two steps: the generation of fission fragments (with their physical properties), followed by their decay using a Monte Carlo Hauser-Feshbach approach. At the moment of scission into two fragments, the total energy is split between kinetic energy (TKE) and excitation energy (TXE). The TXE is further divided into deformation energy and intrinsic excitation energy, which govern the emission of neutrons and photons. Accurate knowledge of both TXE and TKE is essential to improve FIFRELIN’s performance. Microscopic theoretical approaches (such as Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov and the Generator Coordinate Method) are used and developed within DES to provide theoretical input supporting evaluated nuclear data. This postdoctoral position aims to use and enhance these models to gain a more detailed understanding of nuclear properties at scission. The desired candidate has several years of experience (3 years or more) in nuclear mean-field theory (such as Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov, relativistic mean-field, etc.) or in the generator coordinate method.