NPHyCo organises final project conference in Brussels

On 11 February 2025, the NPHyCo final conference was held in Brussels, where project partners presented the results of the work conducted under the EU funded project dedicated to nuclear power and hydrogen cogeneration. The conference gathered project partners and interested stakeholders, allowing for a discussion on the findings of the project and the future of hydrogen production from nuclear.

NPHyCo project coordinator Canet Serin opened the conference by giving an overview of the project’s objective and working methods, before giving the floor to Martin Kykal, Project Engineer at Energy Safety Group (ESG), Stéphanie Crevon, from the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux energies alternatives (CEA), Martin Glueckler, Project Manager for Hydrogen Technologies at Framatome/Covalion  and Aymen Grira, Innovation & Incubation Manager at Westinghouse, who discussed the technical requirements for nuclear power and hydrogen cogeneration.
During the discussion, Martin Glueckler presented the technical assessment work conducted throughout the two years that the project ran, before Martin Kykal detailed the different integration scenarios between a nuclear power plant and hydrogen production plant, and presented the decision matrix developed to determine the most suited integration scenarios.
Stephanie Crevon then took the floor to present the characteristic of flexible operation of nuclear power plants, and to outline the potential benefits of nuclear power and hydrogen cogeneration in this regard. Aymen Grira finally commented on the promising nature of the project’s findings, and opened the floor to participants for a Q&A session.
Following the first panel, Jan Meulenbrugge, Team Manager for Safety & Licensing at Nuclear Research and consultancy Group (NRG) gave a presentation on the licensing and safety aspects of hydrogen production from nuclear. He highlighted that the higher the level of integration of the hydrogen production plant with the nuclear power plant the more licensing is necessary on the side of the nuclear power plant, while scenarios with lesser integration require more licensing on the side of the hydrogen production plant. He added that safety and licensing processes are not showstoppers for the coupling of a hydrogen production plant and a nuclear power plant, and that the main determining criterion for sharing systems is economic.
In the afternoon session, Cecilia Herrero Moriana, Technology Partnerships and Funding Manager at Tecnatom/Westinghouse presented the business case for hydrogen production from nuclear. She stressed that the hydrogen selling price could be competitive in the market in the medium term, but noted that research and development activities and investments need to take place as soon possible, and that the regulatory framework must evolve to support access to funding for nuclear produced hydrogen, on an equal footing with hydrogen produced from renewables. Fabio Nouchy, Product Manager for Small Modular Reactors at Tractebel commented that nuclear was especially competitive when comparing it to other clean sources of hydrogen production, but that it remains complicated to compete with carbon intensive (grey) hydrogen.
The topic of public acceptance of nuclear power and hydrogen cogeneration was then discussed by nucleareurope Communications and Advocacy Director Jessica Johnson. She gave an overview of public acceptance models and existing public opinion surveys on nuclear and on hydrogen. She stressed that even though public acceptance of both nuclear and hydrogen is positive or improving in many countries, there had to date been no surveys on public opinion of nuclear power and hydrogen cogeneration, and NPHyCo had to conduct its own public acceptance survey on the topic. Detailing the results the survey, Jessica highlighted that the level of support appeared to be high, especially in local communities.
Following Jessica’s intervention, Claire Vaglio-Goudard, Coordinator of the EU-funded TANDEM project, outlined the main activities conducted in TANDEM, and their relevance for NPHyCo. She noted that the TANDEM project looked into the integration of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) into low-carbon hybrid energy systems to produce heat, electricity and hydrogen. She then presented the advantages of hybrid energy systems with integrated SMRs, including for the production of hydrogen.
Closing the conference, Twan Van Erp, Clean Planet Directorate Policy Assistant in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD), praised the results of the NPHyCo project, and gave an overview of the European Commission’s actions for the development of a European clean hydrogen economy, detailing current investment and initiatives to develop hydrogen valleys in the European Union.
 
The conference recording, slides and pictures are available here.