Environmental Technologies and Eco-innovation in the Czech ...

efficiency enormously. In addition to the above uranium, these reactors can also used
thorium as a fuel. Their side effects include extensive heat generation which can be
used for hydrogen production.
The fuel cycle ending in nuclear power plants is subject to intense research; the Czech
Republic contributes to it via the Nuclear Research Institute Řež. Currently, roughly 50%
of nuclear waste can be reused after reprocessing. Generation III+ reactors will allow
for 100% reprocessed fuel. This applies also to generation IV reactors. Undesirable
nuclear waste becomes a strategic material of the future.
2.7 | Intelligent network development
Science and research are trying to answer the problems of energy being lost
from the connection of large power plants to the high voltage transmission network
after the transformation down to a lower voltage when energy is distributed to final
consumers. The capacity of distribution networks was constructed from the view of
expected consumption at the distribution network’s end. Today, a number of small
sources, producing energy mainly from RES, are being connected to the existing
distribution networks. This cannot occur without adjusting the distribution networks to
accommodate new generation capacities. Connecting plants that produce energy from
RES to existing distribution networks will be enabled through new “intelligent”
technologies. Intelligent networks are power and communication networks that will
enable the flow of electrical energy between suppliers and customers in order to
optimise the generation process, consumption and “energy storage” and operate
the transmission and distribution networks in real time. They will interconnect
decentralized sources and will control the operation of intelligent networks so that
they will act as one “classical” more efficient generation unit that has no significant
negative impacts on operating the entire system.
The Department of Telecommunication Engineering in the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering of CTU in Prague is engaged in this research and development in the Czech
Republic.
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