India Commissions World First Nuclear Assisted Hydrogen Facility at Kalpakkam Using Copper Chlorine Cycle

India has commissioned the world's first hydrogen production facility based on the Copper-Chlorine thermochemical cycle using nuclear process heat. The demonstration plant at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam uses heat from the Fast Breeder Test Reactor to produce hydrogen without fossil fuels or greenhouse gas emissions. The technology was developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Department of Atomic Energy. The Copper-Chlorine cycle operates at lower temperatures than other thermochemical hydrogen production methods, making it more efficient for coupling with nuclear reactors. The facility is a proof of concept intended to validate the process, provide operational data, and support future scale up to commercial deployment. India sees this as a pathway to large scale carbon free hydrogen production using its advanced fast reactor program. This project connects nuclear energy directly to the clean hydrogen economy, addressing both industrial decarbonization and energy security. The next question is whether the economics work at scale and how quickly India can move from demonstration to commercial plants that compete with electrolysis powered by cheap renewables.