High-Temperature Nuclear Energy Technology Based on Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors for Hydrogen Production

• DOI: 10.1007/s10512-014-9849-5
• Publication Date: 2014-07-26T01:06:38Z
• Authors: A. P. Sorokin; S. G. Kalyakin; F. A. Kozlov; V. V. Alekseev; G. P. Bogoslovskaya; A. P. Ivanov; M. A. Konovalov; A. V. Morozov; E. A. Orlova; V. Yu. Stogov
• Keywords: High-pressure electrolysis; High Temperature Electrolysis; Electrolysis of water

Studies show that in principle it is possible by relying on the BN-600 design to secure the required parameters of a reactor setup with a fast reactor with high-temperature sodium coolant (BN-VT) for hydrogen production. The calculations for 600 MW(t) BN-VT for electricity and hydrogen production based on solid-oxide electrolysis of water taking account of a fundamentally different method of purification – removal of hydrogen and tritium from the sodium by vacuum pumping through special membranes – have shown that the efficiency of such a system is ~40 % and hydrogen production volume is 2.8 · 104 liters/sec. The purification of hydrogen by removing tritium to a concentration ensuring the maximum admissible hydrogen concentration in the hydrogen produced 3.26 Bq/liter, imposes additional requirements on the hydrogen removal system.