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ComputerSong t1_isojdpg wrote

Reply to comment by Spiderbanana in Nation’s First Nuclear-Powered Clean Hydrogen Production Announced. The Nine Mile Point Generating Station, the oldest operating U.S. nuclear power plant, will soon house the nation’s first nuclear-powered clean hydrogen production facility by chopchopped

The plant can do both.

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Spiderbanana t1_isolr0l wrote

But not at the same time. Electricity used to produce hydrogen is not free energy, is electricity that won't end on the power greed. And as long as you have to supply the power grid with a carbon intensive energy source, if you use your nuclear power plant to produce hydrogen, in the end of the chain it comes back to the same than using your carbon intensive energy source to produce your hydrogen.

It's a good solution only if your electricity grid is already clean for baseload needs.

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ComputerSong t1_isomcti wrote

The waste heat from nuclear power generation has been used to manufacture hydrogen for years.

You could say this article is old and/or misleading, but in the internet age that’s kind of a given.

In any case, this is energy that is otherwise wasted or used for something else. It won’t affect the amount of electricity generated or used. The only thing consumed is water, which yeah will also be a problem in the coming years.

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Spiderbanana t1_isonx2y wrote

But then why not use it directly for district space heating/cooling while HVAC are running full blast all around ?

But I get your point, I thought they where using the electricity from the powerplant directly through an hydrolysis process.

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Albert14Pounds t1_isosger wrote

Because there is probably not a significant local demand for that waste heat near the plant.

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