Russia is planning to develop a “commercially effective” solution for the production of green hydrogen using a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor unit and a methane conversion unit.

Anton Moskvin, vice-president for marketing and business development at JSC Rusatom Overseas, a subsidiary of state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, said during a discussion on green hydrogen production at the Russian Energy Week conference that a first such facility could be in place by 2030.

He gave no further details of HTGR deployment. Russia and General Atomics of the US developed a conceptual HTGR design in the 1990s and had hoped to begin construction in 2010, but the project stalled.

HTGR plants are smaller than conventional nuclear power stations, more flexible, and could potentially be built at a fraction of a cost.