Decarbonized energy for Defence: 2 Tech paths for a sustainable military deployment in the near future

Co-organized by:

Agenda

Introduction: Jean-Xavier CHABANE – CEA (10mn)

Session 1: Dr. Ville TULKKI – VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland ltd (30mn + 15mn for questions)

Small modular reactors

This talk discusses the basics and applications of Small modular reactors (SMRs). SMR is an umberella term for a group of nuclear reactors currently in various stages of development, with the unifying feature of being relatively small in power capacity compared to the conventional nuclear power plants. They are intended for various applications, from electricity production to industrial heat supply, hydrogen production, and off-grid uses. The distributed nature of such applications potentially presents new challenges from the security standpoint, as the smaller nuclear reactors may be located in various places close to industrial sites or population centres. On the other hand nuclear reactors provide an opportunity to produce power with minimal land footprint and limited need for resupply. Traditional defence applications have been in nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers, but for instance barge mounted reactors have also been used. Current international defence related SMR projects also include, for instance, US DoD project for a design of a mobile power source.

Session 2: – Bernard THONON – CEA (30mn + 15mn for questions)

Toward energy autonomy for military camps using advanced energy management tools

Despite a constant improvement of their energy efficiency, a growing energy consumption of weapon systems and of their logistic footprint has been observed. It is mainly due to the number of the vehicles, huge requirements in mobility of force, the on-board electronic system, the soldier connected devices and equipment and more globally, the digitalisation of the battlefield. This increasing energy consumption should be made through new production and use tools like renewable energies, hybrid motorisation or energy production, batteries and fuel cells. However, these new forms of consumption pose a challenge for their integration in weapon systems, for their technological development and for their logistical operational management. The presentation will focus on advanced optimisation methods for managing complex energy systems.

Conclusion - (10mn)