(182a) Pre-Conceptual Design and Cost Estimate for a Nuclear Hydrogen Production Plant

A national energy system based on the use of hydrogen as a primary energy carrier will require new methods for large-scale hydrogen production and distribution. One approach for efficiently producing large quantities of hydrogen without producing greenhouse gases is the use of nuclear water-splitting. The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE) has established a Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative with the goal to demonstrate the economic, commercial-scale production of hydrogen using nuclear energy. If successful, this research could lead to a large-scale, emission-free, domestic hydrogen production capability to fuel a future hydrogen economy.

This presentation will discuss the results of work performed during a three-year study for the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) Program under the auspices of the DOE-NE. The objective of this research was to identify, characterize, and evaluate the critical technical and economic issues associated with centralized nuclear hydrogen production. The technical approach consisted of the thermochemical decomposition of water using heat from a next generation (Gen IV) nuclear reactor. The research team, led by Savannah River National Laboratory, addressed not only the nuclear hydrogen production plant, but also infrastructure issues associated with integrating such a plant into a complete hydrogen supply system. This included consideration of hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and end-user integration, as well as the interaction of these factors.

During the first phase of the project, the design and evaluation was performed for an Nth-of-a-kind commercial nuclear hydrogen production plant. This included identification and analysis of the major requirements for nuclear hydrogen production; definition of the physical characteristics and major considerations for the nuclear reactor, the thermochemical hydrogen production process, and the related hydrogen infrastructure; and an economic analysis of hydrogen production costs, infrastructure costs, end-user economics, commercial hydrogen cost comparison, distributed electrolysis comparison, and tradeoff studies and sensitivity analysis.

During the study phase of the study, a site-specific, pre-conceptual design of a commercial prototype nuclear hydrogen production plant was developed. This test-case design provided for a more detailed evaluation of nuclear hydrogen production, including plant design and site selection issues, integration with an existing industrial hydrogen end-user, sizing and characterization of hydrogen storage and pipeline transmission systems, identification and evaluation of other hydrogen infrastructure issues, and a detailed economic assessment.