DAE sets up world’s first nuclear heat-based hydrogen production facility at Kalpakkam

• The Department of Atomic Energy established the world’s first hydrogen production facility using nuclear process heat at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam near Chennai on June 26.

• The facility has been established as a technology demonstrator to validate the production of hydrogen using nuclear energy through the Copper-Chlorine (CuCl) thermochemical process developed indigenously by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai.

• The successful integration of nuclear process heat with hydrogen generation marks a pioneering technological breakthrough and opens a promising pathway for large-scale, carbon-free hydrogen production using advanced nuclear reactors.

CuCl thermochemical cycle

• Hydrogen is widely regarded as a key energy carrier for the future and is expected to play a pivotal role in the global transition towards clean and sustainable energy systems. 

• Among the various hydrogen production technologies under development worldwide, the CuCl thermochemical cycle is considered one of the most promising due to its relatively lower operating temperatures and higher thermodynamic efficiency.

• By harnessing nuclear heat from fast reactors, the process significantly reduces dependence on fossil fuels and eliminates greenhouse gas emissions associated with conventional hydrogen production methods.

• The commissioning of the facility represents the culmination of extensive research, process development, engineering design, equipment fabrication, installation, testing and commissioning efforts undertaken jointly by BARC and IGCAR.

• The plant will provide valuable operational experience, facilitate further optimisation of the CuCl process and support future research aimed at scaling up nuclear-assisted hydrogen production technologies for commercial deployment.

Fast Breeder Reactor programme

• IGCAR, one of India’s premier nuclear research institutions under the Department of Atomic Energy, has been at the forefront of the country’s Fast Breeder Reactor programme since its establishment in 1971. 

• The Centre successfully designed, constructed and operated the Fast Breeder Test Reactor, which has served as an invaluable platform for the development and validation of fuels, materials and sodium technologies for more than four decades. 

• The knowledge and expertise generated through FBTR have laid the technological foundation for India’s fast reactor programme and played a pivotal role in the development of the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), the flagship of the second stage of India’s three-stage nuclear power programme.

Additional Read:

Three stages of India’s nuclear power programme

India’s nuclear power programme has three stages with an objective to utilise modest uranium and large thorium reserves in the country to provide long term energy security. The programme is sequential and each stage has fuel cycle linkages in which spent fuel from one stage is reprocessed to obtain fuel for the next stage.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)