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MELCOR is developed at
Sandia National Laboratories
for the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
 MELCOR-H2 is an extended version of MELCOR designed to fully couple detailed models of nuclear reactors with modular secondary-system components and thermochemical cycles for the production of hydrogen and electricity.

schematic
[Schematic of a nuclear reactor that is fully coupled to a thermochemical SI cycle and secondary system.]

MELCOR-H2 is the world's only tool that fully integrates a nuclear/thermochemical hydrogen plant and calculates the plant‘s transient behavior. It employs a generalized, modular approach whose aim is to:
  • Provide design and transient analysis of integral nuclear and thermochemical plants
  • Maximize hydrogen production
  • Evaluate the potential for safe operation under normal and abnormal conditions
  • Run parametric design calculations
  • Compute hydrogen generation cost in $/kg
Current MELCOR-H2 capabilities include:
  • Modeling of high temperature gas-cooled reactors
  • The ability to simulate secondary system components such as compressors, turbines, and the intermediate heat exchanger
  • Sulfur iodine (SI) chemistry
  • A real-time, interactive graphical user interface (GUI)
The development philosophy is geared to enable the MELCOR-H2 user to model a given nuclear reactor type, desired chemistry cycle, and particular secondary system layout of interest. By employing a modular approach, MELCOR-H2 will be able to model most nuclear/thermochemical systems.

MELCOR-H2's SI chemistry model includes the three major chemical reactions: decomposition of sulfuric acid (H2SO4), decomposition of hydrogen iodide (HI) (hydriodic acid dissolved in water), and the Bunsen reaction, which is the low-temperature reconstitution of the two acids.

The current version of MELCOR-H2 computes the system's transient variables and displays them on the screen in real time via a GUI. If desired, the analyst/designer may change input during a simulation to see how the calculated parameters respond (green arrows in figure below);

gui
[Snapshot of MELCOR-H2 real-time, interactive GUI.]

this makes MELCOR-H2 a very effective tool for the maximization of hydrogen via nuclear/thermochemical plants.

Future versions of MELCOR-H2 will include the Westinghouse Hybrid Sulfur Cycle and the Adiabatic UT-3 Cycle, and will be able to compute hydrogen generation cost in dollars per kilogram, will have more advanced thermalhydraulic secondary-system models, and will include process modules for distillation and separation. At this point, we are seeking partners for MELCOR-H2 applications for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnerships, the New Hydrogen Initiative, and new generation reactors.
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