India's Department of Atomic Energy has inaugurated a hydrogen production facility at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam. The plant uses a copper-chlorine thermochemical cycle powered by process heat from the sodium-cooled fast breeder test reactor. This first-of-its-kind setup aims to validate clean hydrogen production for industrial uses like ammonia, methanol, and steelmaking without relying on fossil fuels. The facility will focus on optimizing the Cu-Cl process and scaling up nuclear-assisted hydrogen for commercial deployment. It builds on decades of fast reactor experience at IGCAR and supports India's goals for energy security and decarbonization. Similar efforts are underway in the U.S., such as Constellation Energy's hydrogen production at Nine Mile Point using nuclear electricity. Nuclear hydrogen offers a pathway to low-carbon industrial heat and fuel, but commercial scale and cost competitiveness remain open questions. The Kalpakkam facility is a research step toward answering those questions.
