India launches world first nuclear process heat hydrogen plant at Kalpakkam

India has started the world's first hydrogen production facility that uses nuclear process heat instead of fossil fuels. Located at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam, the plant draws heat from the Fast Breeder Test Reactor to run a Copper-Chlorine thermochemical cycle developed by BARC in Mumbai. This approach avoids the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional hydrogen production and uses a reactor design that operates at lower temperatures than older nuclear systems. Officials say the facility is a technology demonstrator meant to validate the process and generate operational data for scaling up. India's Department of Atomic Energy sees nuclear heat as a strategic fit for large-scale clean hydrogen, especially given the country's growing energy demand and decarbonization targets. The project builds on over 40 years of fast reactor experience at IGCAR. For anyone tracking low-carbon hydrogen or advanced nuclear applications, this is a real world test of a concept that has mostly lived in research papers. The key question is whether the Copper-Chlorine cycle can maintain efficiency and cost at commercial scale. The plant's performance data will be worth watching.