Nuclear power too expensive for hydrogen production

Senior UN IPCC figure says reactors are not competitive with other low-carbon forms of power generation so the industry would require substantial subsidies to produce H₂ on either side of the Atlantic

The recent spike in net-zero commitments by companies and countries has brought with it the realisation that massive amounts of decarbonised hydrogen will be needed in the future to slash emissions in hard-to-abate industries. In the UK and US, this has led proponents of the nuclear industry to present it as a potential source of power for the electrolysers to produce what is often referred to as pink hydrogen. Professor Benjamin Sovacool In mid-February, the UK’s Nuclear Industry Council (NIC) released a roadmap report suggesting that as much as a third of UK hydrogen could be produced using nuclear power—both large-scale and small mod