HYDROGEN MARKETS AND FUTURES FOR NUCLEAR POWER

Changing crude oil supplies and requirements for liquid fuels (gasoline, jet fuel, etc.) are rapidly increasing the demand for hydrogen (H ) by refineries and chemical plants. Within a decade, the energy 2 that would be required to make this H by thermo-chemical methods may exceed the energy output of all 2 the nuclear power plants in the United States. This is independent of any future "H economy" that uses 2 fuel cells or distributed-power systems. If nuclear reactors can be developed to economically produce H , the traditional industrial market would be sufficient to support a major expansion of nuclear power. 2 Hydrogen pipelines, the equivalent of the power grid, exist between refineries and merchant H plants to 2 allow deployment of large H plants. 2