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.
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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 116, No. 4, pp. 194–203, April, 2014.
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Sorokin, A.P., Kalyakin, S.G., Kozlov, F.A. et al. High-Temperature Nuclear Energy Technology Based on Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors for Hydrogen Production. At Energy 116, 241–251 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-014-9849-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-014-9849-5