The International Atomic Energy Agency is increasingly looking at hybrid energy systems combining nuclear and renewables and working with operators around world on the idea of “nuclear beyond electricity”, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi said.

Mr Grossi told a webinar organised in conjunction with the Nuclear Energy Agency that using nuclear reactors to do more than generate baseload electricity will be key to decarbonising industries that rely heavily on fossil fuels.

This sort of nuclear “cogeneration” is where the heat generated by a nuclear station is used not only to generate electricity, but to address some of the difficult to decarbonise energy demands such as domestic heating and hydrogen production. It also enables a nuclear plant to be used more flexibly, by switching between electricity generation and cogeneration applications.