NUCLEAR POWER AND ITS POTENTIAL FOR HYDROGEN GENERATION

With respect to a large-scale hydrogen production, nuclear power can play a significant role if used as a provider of electricity in the electrolysis process or as a provider of high-temperature heat in fossil fuel conversion. An introductory option would be the use of cheap surplus electricity. Production of hydrogen as a bulk energy carrier is by a factor of about 2 too expensive compared with the today s commercial business of natural gas and oil, however, the trend to include external effects into the energy cost may help to achieve economic attractiveness [2]. 

A look at the use of different reactor types demonstrates the dominant role of the LWR line in commercial electricity production. From 428 nuclear power plants operating worldwide in 1996 to produce 363 GW(e) or 17 % of the international electricity supply -plus 62 units under construction to produce 55 more GW(e) - 342 plants are LWRs, 249 PWRs and 93 BWRs, for a total of 311 GW(e) [27]. And the trend to larger power units was observed. Not more than 5 GW(th) of global nuclear power are presently employed to supply hot water and steam, mostly in Canada, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine [25]. 

Nuclear growth depends on the future public perception of the comparative benefits, cost, and risks of alternatives. Ba on the comparative evaluation of tangible risks to public health, safety, and environment, nuclear power appears to be a better choice than coal [39]. 

The structure of energy demand in the industries for the generation of certain process heat temperature levels is shown in Figs. 2-1 and 2-2 for the examples of Germany and Japan, respectively [5, 17]. In principle, there is a great demand in the low temperature 

For the introduction of nuclear process heat into the energy market, the estimation of present and future industrial demand for process steam needs to be made first as well as establishing how nuclear power fits into the energy needs profile [19]. Inevitable fluctuations in industrial process heat/steam demand have to be expected. Also the consumer circle for secondary energy is limited for industrial plants compared with public power plants, thus smaller units would be preferable. On the other hand, nuclear units are economically operated only at a certain minimum capacity. Units of 500 MW(th) are thought in [7] to allow economic use of the nuclear option. A more recent study from 1990 [19] takes plants of 2 100 MW(th) as a minimum into consideration increasing the industrial potential of nuclear plants. Table 2-1 summarizes the number of process steam plants, sites, and steam production capacity in Germany valid for the year 1987 [19]. 

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