NPP Modification Opportunity by Hydrogen Technologies Implementation: Assessment in Frame of the Euratom Project NPHyCo

Abstract NPHyCo (Nuclear Power and Hydrogen Cogeneration) is an EU research project dedicated to the production of hydrogen from nuclear power. The project is funded by the EU’s Euratom Research & Training program (2021–2025) dedicated to nuclear research and innovation. NPHyCo started in the Autumn of 2022 and will last for two and a half years. The EU hopes to fully decarbonize its economy by 2050 [1]. One of the solutions being put forward is hydrogen. Nevertheless, to date most of the hydrogen produced in Europe comes from fossil fuels [2]. So the question is how to increase the production of low-carbon hydrogen to ensure that enough is being produced — at an affordable cost — to meet the needs of hard to decarbonize sectors, such as industry? The article presents the structure of the project and the results achieved so far by the different working groups of the NPHyCo project, such as concept, technology, economics, licensing, implementation, selection of a suitable location for the hydrogen production plant (HPP) and communication. Particular attention is paid to the nuclear power plant (NPP) modification in the case of a hydrogen facility construction, its connection to the NPP resources and NPP safety assessment. The first results regarding Ukrainian NPPs were presented in [3], but since then new results have been obtained, which are presented in the next sections. Since the largest scope of information was collected for Ukrainian NPPs we use the Rivne NPP (RNPP) for the best tuning of all universal models in WP3, WP4 and WP5. Therefore, the results for this NPP in particular are presented below.