On 2 July 2025, the TANDEM project held its final conference in Brussels to present the outcomes of three-year EU funded project, which explored the role of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs) in hybrid energy systems. The full-day event gathered project partners, industrial stakeholders and policymakers.

The conference provided an opportunity for participants to learn more about the integration of SMRs into hybrid energy systems, and to connect around topics of innovation, energy security and decarbonisation.

In the morning session, speakers shared high-level policy messages with the participants: following welcoming words by European Commission’s Angelgiorgio Iorizzo, Andrei Goicea, representing the European Industrial Alliance on SMRs, set the scene of the current landscape for SMRs in the EU. He detailed recent developments both on the industrial side and the policy side.

TANDEM project coordinator Claire Vaglio-Gaudard then presented the project’s structure, activities and objectives. She gave an overview of the different deliverables produced in the framework of the project, highlighting the key topics addressed by its working groups. The following topics were then discussed: nucleareurope’s Jessica Johnson presented the project’s policy briefs, VTT’s Merja Airola tackled the question of public acceptance and ENEN’s Gabriel Pavel addressed the topic of skills and workforce needs.

Following the morning’s discussions, the afternoon session was dedicated to discussing the technical results of the project. It started with a presentation of the TANDEM modelling tools and methodologies and of its open source Modelica-based library, given by Politecnico Di Milano’s Stefano Lorenzi and Guido Masottti, as well as GRS’s Thorsten Hollands. An overview of safety conditions for electric and non-electric applications of SMRs was then given by University of Pisa’s Walter Ambrosini and CEA’s Paolo Olita.

CEA’s Stéphanie Crevon and VTT’s Tomi Lindroos gave the final technical presentation of the day, focusing on the methodology for a techno-economic and environmental  study of SMR integrations. Their intervention was followed by a discussion between TANDEM partners on potential future work, before Claire Vaglio Gaudard’s and Angelgiorgio Iorizzo’s concluding remarks closed the conference.

Agenda

Recordings and presentations

Photo gallery