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19 February 2021
Weekly Digest
UK publishes Hydrogen Roadmap
The UK Nuclear Industry Council, a joint industry-government body, has published a Hydrogen Roadmap for the UK showing how the country might achieve 225 TWh (6.76 million tonnes) of low-carbon hydrogen each year by 2050. It outlines how large-scale and small modular reactors (SMRs) can produce both the power and the heat necessary to produce clean hydrogen. It proposes 12-13 GW of nuclear reactors of all types using high-temperature steam electrolysis and thermochemical means to produce 75 TWh/yr (2.25 Mt) of clean hydrogen by 2050. This would complement some ‘green hydrogen’ from intermittent renewables but with higher load factors for expensive electrolysers reducing cost to that of today’s ‘grey’ hydrogen production which has large CO2 emissions. A “robust policy framework” will be required.
 
This is complementary to an October 2020 policy briefing by The Royal Society in UK on Nuclear Cogeneration. It examines how the use of nuclear power could be expanded to improve the overall efficiency and energy system resilience to meet the UK net-zero 2050 goal. It considers particularly cogeneration, where the heat from a nuclear power station is used to address some of the ‘difficult to decarbonise’ energy demand, as well as providing electricity. Hydrogen production is a prime focus, and small reactors could match their thermal output to the requirements of a single plant or cluster of co-located industrial processes.
WNN 17/2/19.   UK, Hydrogen
 
New Chinese mini electric vehicle heads for mass market
At the end of 2020 some ten million electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, were on the road worldwide. The move to greater electromobility depending on reliable electricity is led by Tesla but boosted by a new Chinese car.  SAIC-GM-Wuling released the Wuling HongGuang mini EV in mid 2020 at a price of $4200. It immediately became very popular, with sales of 119,000 in six months. The concept is for a small and affordable 2-door, 4-seat car, with 665 kg kerb weight which exploits the inherent simplicity of an EV. It has a 13 kW motor and a 9.2 kWh battery, giving 120 km range. It is sold only in China.
Electric vehicles
 
Texas shivers in the dark
Unusually cold conditions in Texas and contiguous US states – more typical of Alaska - have boosted electricity (and gas) demand while limiting supply from wind and solar PV sources due to snow and ice, and also from gas. More reliable sources of power, notably several nuclear power plants, proved insufficient after some 15 years of subsidised investment in unreliable sources coupled with undue reliance on natural gas. Texas wind and solar farms get $2.4 billion a year in direct regulatory support which provides some 44% of their revenues, skewing investment away from reliable sources. Government policies have also favoured using electricity for heating. Natural gas spot prices peaked at 200 times normal, and electricity prices at 360 times the seasonal average. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) presided over blackouts to shed up to 10.5 GWe of load as demand reached 69 GWe.
WNN 18/2/21.  US NP
 
Plutonium power doubled on Mars
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover has landed on the planet as the second mobile science laboratory to explore it.  At 1025 kg it is a little heavier than its Curiosity predecessor, which has travelled some 24 km since it landed in 2012. Both are powered by multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generators fuelled by 4.8 kg of plutonium-238. The radioactive decay of this produces 2 kW thermal which is used to generate about 110 watts of electric power, 2.7 kWh per day. The half-life of Pu-238 is 88 years, potentially giving several decades of function.
WNN 19/2/21.  Reactors & Radioisotopes in space
 


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