main outcomes of NPHyCo:
• Safety is not a showstopping issue in the coupling of an HPP to a NPP. The current regulations ensure that in the lay-out, safe distances have to be maintained and that incidents or accidents in either one of the installations will not lead to any significant or unacceptable effect in the other installation. Since this can be shown and justified, getting a license for the HPP-NPP coupling is feasible.
• From a technical point of view, it is possible to couple hydrogen production to a nuclear power plant. There are various technical solutions that can ensure safety and that comply with all regulations and guidelines.
• The determining factors for coupling/no coupling are the financial/economic factors. The electricity price (LCOE) determines for approximately 80% the cost price of hydrogen (LCOH) produced by low temperature electrolysis like PEM/ AEL.
• Due to higher cost of high temperature electrolysis installations, l the LCOH of HTE is mainly determined by the CAPEX and less by the electricity cost.
• The possible reduction in LCOH by sharing systems with the NPP is therefore limited and, in most cases, sharing will be limited to direct electricity supply.
• The distribution costs of hydrogen form a substantial part of the LCOHD (approx. 30-35%), meaning that locations for the HPP near hydrogen off-takers are preferred to minimize distribution costs.
• Production costs for pink hydrogen can be competitive on the long term (2050) but will need government intervention on the short term to be competitive with grey hydrogen.
• Nuclear hydrogen is the only option to meet security of supply, non-CO2 emission, no price fluctuations, sufficient high production rates +at promising costs.
• Existing NPPs will face increasingly periods with very low market electricity prices, even below their LCOE. Having the flexibility at these periods to dedicate part of their capacity to hydrogen production can increase the overall profitability of the NPP.
• Future developments of electrolysers like high temperature electrolysers and dedicated combinations of electrolysers with (small modular and/or high temperature) nuclear reactors using both electricity and heat have the potential to further decrease the LCOH. Governmental support for these developments will be highly effective in speeding up these developments and support the energy transition towards net zero emissions.
