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Why Nuclear Energy and Hydrogen

By Eric McErlain
Geoffrey Styles of Energy Outlook is taking a vacation, and he's left a variety of links from his archive that are worthwhile. Of particular interest to our readers is his post from February 2005 where he explains why nuclear energy, and not natural gas, may be the best generation source for hydrogen:
Staying with natural gas for the moment, the North American gas industry will have its hands full simply maintaining current supply levels for current uses--electricity generation, home heating and industry--over that timeframe, without adding anything for hydrogen. Since liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the industry's current answer to its supply problems, it's worth noting that the amount of gas cited above for future US hydrogen needs [34 billion cubic feet per day] is equivalent to the output of 40 new LNG plants such as this one planned for Indonesia, or about 5,600 fully-loaded LNG tankers per year. Importing even a fraction of this much LNG will be a big challenge, given the resistance that most proposed LNG receiving facilities are meeting . . .

So if natural gas isn't the long-term energy source for the hydrogen economy, what is? Frankly, it's daunting to contemplate getting the approvals necessary to install sufficient new capacity of any kind to fill this gap, whether we are talking about LNG, wind turbines, or solar arrays. All of these, at this scale, will encounter enormous opposition. Of all the options, nuclear power would require the fewest new facilities in the smallest number of locations. Perhaps this explains its attraction for some hydrogen advocates.
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