Application of GIS in selection of location for construction of nuclear power plants in Serbia

Abstract

The use of nuclear energy in the world represents one of the main alternatives to fossil fuels. Significant greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion could be replaced by cleaner energy such as nuclear. In this paper, by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), available databases and Analytic hierarchy process (AHP), the results in the selection of the location for the construction of nuclear power plants (NPP) in Serbia were obtained. The research area includes zones between large rivers (Danube, Sava, Tisa, Velika Morava) with an area of 8757.45 km². An analysis of natural (seismicity, geological background, hypsometry, slope of the terrain, distance from faults, ground cover, land use method) and anthropogenic conditions (distance from the state border, settlements, roads and railways) was carried out, with the elimination of protected areas from further research due to of its ecological significance. After multi-criteria analysis, weighting coefficients were assigned for each criterion using the AHP method. The results showed that 0.02% of the area is suitable, and 8.68% partially suitable for the construction of nuclear power plants. This paper provides an adequate overview of the most suitable locations for the use of nuclear energy, so that the obtained results can be applied in further research by national services in charge of nuclear sciences.