Assessing Technical and Economic Aspects of Nuclear Hydrogen Production for Near-term Deployment

The CRP had positive impact for national R&D programmes and expanding activities on nuclear hydrogen production conducted by participant Member States. For example, the CSI from Argentina, Ms Ana Ester Bohe (Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica) wrote on the impact of this CRP work for her country: "The theoretical feasibility study on nuclear-assisted gasification process applied to the Argentine Rio Turbio coal is very important for giving to our country the technical arguments that will be needed during the decision process with regard to the nuclear hydrogen production through the gasification of domestic coals. Aspects such as the most convenient HTGR design, the maximum size of the gasification plant according to the present state of technologies, and the most critical safety issues to be considered for the coupling of the nuclear reactor and gasification plant, have been clarified through this study. Moreover, the experimental activities planned for pyrolysis and gasification tests at bench-scale are also very important to evaluate the gasification behaviour of Argentine domestic coal in fluidized bed reactor conditions, as a function of the operational parameters (reaction temperature, partial pressure of reactive gases and coal particle size)."