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Safety Issues on Nuclear Production of Hydrogen 
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José M. Martínez-Val, Jesús Talavera^(*), Agustín Alonso
ETSII, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid- Getafe, Spain
^(*) Refinería de Puertollano, REPSOL YPF, Spain

Safety experience on the production and use of hydrogen in refineries and other chemical facilities is a very important source of knowledge for addressing the safety issues of the Hydrogen Economy.

6. Tentative conclusions

In the systematic review that will be needed for the Safety Assessment of those new reactors, the accumulated experience on LWR will play a very important role. This fact is not in opposition to another important fact: there is a very large number of potential reactor kinds to be studied and developed to meet the new requirements of energy in the 21^st century. By all accounts, safety will be the first priority in this evolutionary revolution. In spite of TMI-2 and Chernobyl-4 accidents, safety records in the nuclear industry have been very good. Even so, there is a lot of room for improvements by using new materials (new fuels, new coolants) and new designs (very stable reactors with strongly negative reactivity feedback; passive cooling; unconditional subcriticality in the case of accidents and so on).

Safety experience on the production and use of hydrogen in refineries and other chemical facilities is a very important source of knowledge for addressing the safety issues of the Hydrogen Economy. Several studies have compiled most of the relevant data about hydrogen accidents. For instance, Factory Mutual Research Corporation [Zalosh] collected most of the facts on hydrogen accidents, from insurance records. Another compilation (1997) has been done by Directed Technologies Inc. for the USA Department of Energy. From another viewpoint, Los Alamos National Laboratory carried out a safety analysis on liquid hydrogen shipment by highway truck trailers [Bose et al]. In a more complex context, the NASA has made several safety evaluations of the use of hydrogen in different applications (direct combustion, fuel cells and others). All these studies will be extended in the near future, under the umbrella of the International Partnership on the Hydrogen Economy. It is believed that new studies will have to converge with some of the study cases proposed by the Generation Four initiative.

It is impossible to declare that all possible safety issues have been anticipated in the analysis of nuclear production of hydrogen, for all possible methods. It can be stated, however, that here are principles, criteria, rules and methodology to make the safety assessment of any nuclear installation devised to produce hydrogen, either by electrolysis or by thermo-chemical reactions.

Hydrogen can become an important energy vector in the economy of the future, but primary energy will be needed for that. This is a job that Nuclear Energy can do. There are possibilities to be studied and tools to carry out those studies. Some of those tools will specifically be used to guarantee the safety levels required in the whole cycle of nuclear production of hydrogen.

Acknowledgements

Comments by the Editor, Dr. M.Hori, and by Dr. Wade, from ANL, are highly recognized. The authors also acknowledge the contribution of Ph.D.students J.M.Martín Valdepeñas and M.A.Jiménez in gathering information relevant to this subject.

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