Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States (2023) / Chapter Skim
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5 Beyond Electricity: Nuclear Power's Potential to Play a Broader Role in the Future Energy System
5 Beyond Electricity: Nuclear Power's Potential to Play a Broader Role in the Future Energy System
Pages 73-90
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From page 73... ...
New and advanced nuclear power technologies have the potential to provide a range of energy services other than electricity. For example, they produce large amounts of heat that can be leveraged for useful purposes: either nuclear electricity or nuclear heat can be used to desalinate water or produce synthetic fuels1 like hydrogen, ammonia, and gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons.
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From page 74... ...
What is new is the higher temperatures that some advanced nuclear systems could provide, the potential cost reductions that might be achieved through innovative design and manufacturing processes, and the growing interest in integrating non-electric energy services so that nuclear reactors might better compete in a power system that is increasingly served by variable renewable energy resources. Multiple paradigms are envisioned that integrate non-electric applications into future nuclear reactor deployments.
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From page 75... ...
Steel production Thermal energy is required to preheat iron ore pellets to approximately 850°C: some ~850 advanced nuclear reactors could directly provide heat at that temperature, or power electrified steel production equipment. Cement production Cement production is a complex process that involves three distinct steps for 660–1,450 converting limestone-bearing feed: (1)
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The following subsections briefly describe potential non-electric applications: clean hydrogen, ammonia and synthetic fuels production, industrial process heat, district heating, and water desalination. As discussed in Box 5-2
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to obtain elemental hydrogen. Currently, most hydrogen worldwide is produced using steam methane reforming, a process in which natural gas is heated in the presence of steam and a catalyst to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
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. Nuclear reactors may also be co-located with the industrial customer to produce hydrogen on-site, for example to replace the steam methane reforming process (Nuclear Newswire 2022)
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of advanced nuclear reactors are advantageous, although the LWR heat (up to ~300°C) is also sufficient to vaporize water.
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Another promising low-carbon hydrogen pathway enabled by advanced nuclear is via thermochemical splitting cycles, which only require heat from nuclear reactors and thus result in reduced integration effort and potentially overall cost reduction compared to the SOEC route. There are efforts to develop and learn from pilot-scale facilities that employ advanced nuclear reactors for hydrogen production through the sulfur-iodine (SI)
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From page 81... ...
Factors unique to the LCOH of electrolytic hydrogen production pathway include the hydrogen plant capital cost, the efficiency of electrolyzers, and so on. When it comes to the nuclear–hydrogen route, it is likely that the goal set by the Hydrogen Shot initiative can only be realized by the existing fleet of nuclear reactors, rather than one of the advanced reactors.
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From page 82... ...
Lower SOEC degradation rates impact both its service life and replacement schedule, ultimately contributing to lower costs. For the nuclear–hydrogen pathway to be cost competitive in general, the costs of both nuclear reactors and electrolytic cells must fall drastically.
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From page 83... ...
For example, the vision of an advanced NPP serving the electric grid when necessary and then switching to hydrogen production when electric power supply exceeds demand, requires the reactor operator to incur substantial capital investments in the engineering systems, infrastructure, and regulatory compliance that is necessary for frequent switching between the two services. If clean hydrogen commands a premium -- as it is likely to -- a reactor operator might well choose instead to design a plant that is dedicated to its production, perhaps even if that entails investment in hydrogen storage in order to exploit its higher revenue stream.
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From page 84... ...
While drawing no specific conclusions, the report indicated that an SMR could potentially meet the existing process heat needs of the Kingsport facility but noted that the required capital investment would be substantial and present a major hurdle. Efforts to electrify thermochemical processes could reduce the need for siting nuclear reactors near industrial facilities, 9 Currently, synthetic liquid hydrocarbons are predominantly produced using feedstocks and energy derived from fossil fuels, and generate net CO2 emissions.
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although the reactors would have to compete with other sources of low-carbon electricity and heat, such as natural gas with carbon capture and storage. Other possible industrial integrations include using nuclear power for running a cryogenic refrigerant cycle, the chlor-alkali process, and formic acid production.
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From page 86... ...
; however, water pollution, urbanization, and water scarcity are issues that could increase the market for desalinated water by the time advanced nuclear reactors begin to come online. The Middle East and North Africa have the greatest potential market for desalinated water owing to growing populations and existing water scarcity issues (Ahn et al.
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From page 87... ...
An Assessment of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant for Zero-Carbon Electricity, Desalination, and Hydrogen Productions, Stanford University Precourt Institute of Energy, https://drive.google.com/ file/d/1RcWmKwqgzvIgllh0BB2s5cA6ajuVJJzt/view.
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Hydro gen provides perhaps the most credible non-electric revenue stream for nuclear reactors, because it is likely that hydrogen will have value across the industrial, power, and transportation sectors for deep decarbonization. REFERENCES Aborn, J., E
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From page 89... ...
2021. "Nuclear and the Chemical Industries." Presented to the National Academies' Committee on Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States, July 20.
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2020b. "Finnish Firm Launches SMR District Heating Project." World Nuclear News, February 24.
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