Bankable — Nuclear Hydrogen: Make Fuel—or Sell the Power?

📺 Bankable · Real Bet? | ~20 min One reactor megawatt-hour can be sold as clean, firm electricity—or converted into hydrogen. Which buyer should get it? The answer depends on which nuclear-hydrogen project you mean. Nine Mile Point in New York is the strongest operating receipt: a 1.25 MW electrolyser makes hydrogen for the nuclear plant's own cooling system, replacing delivered fossil hydrogen. That is a real niche with an existing reactor, a captive customer and almost no merchant delivery. A new small modular reactor built around hydrogen is a different capital stack. It combines reactor cost and schedule risk, electrolyser performance, plant integration, storage and delivery, policy timing, and a hydrogen contract that still has to beat the value of selling firm electricity. This episode tests four cases: • existing light-water reactor + captive or adjacent low-temperature electrolysis• new small modular reactor + conventional electrolysis + industrial buyer• advanced high-temperature reactor + solid-oxide electrolysis using electricity and heat• sell the clean, firm electricity—the control case The evidence includes Nine Mile Point's operating system, DOE's explicitly dated U.S. demonstration ladder, the 20-year Vistra/Meta agreement that now covers Davis-Besse electricity, Meta/Constellation and other long-duration nuclear-power agreements, Ontario's BWRX-300 under construction at Darlington, U.S. 45V treatment of qualifying existing nuclear electricity, Canada's carbon-intensity tiers, final Regulation (EU) 2025/2359, and China's HTR-PM platform plus a distinct 2026 iodine-sulfur thermochemical hydrogen R&D update. 📊 The free editable Nuclear MWh Allocation Calculator is linked with the episode. Change hydrogen value, power value, utilisation, realised offtake, conversion capital, delivery, heat and policy assumptions. It shows the exact point where making hydrogen beats—or loses to—selling the same reactor megawatt-hour. ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 One reactor megawatt-hour, two buyers1:33 Four nuclear-hydrogen projects2:59 The operating receipt replaces a truck4:25 Capacity factor vs opportunity cost5:44 What high-temperature electrolysis changes7:32 The missing demonstration rungs9:11 Powering AI becomes the control case10:35 Small modular reactor reality at Darlington12:24 Run the Nuclear MWh Allocation Calculator15:08 Policy can move the spread—or miss the schedule17:33 Four cases, four calls18:56 The nuclear-hydrogen verdict Tell me in the comments: which of the four paths would you back—existing captive hydrogen, a new modular reactor with a buyer, advanced heat-assisted hydrogen, or direct power sales? What price, contract or operating result determines your choice? Next: a dedicated policy and regulation episode closes the hydrogen arc with eligibility, carbon accounting, certification, expiry and cross-market comparison. Then Bankable moves to the next molecule. We judge technologies, projects and economics, never securities. Nothing here is investment advice. 🤝 Advisory (feasibility / techno-economics / first-of-a-kind projects): bankable.show/advisory · hello@bankable.show #NuclearHydrogen #Hydrogen #NuclearEnergy #SMR #Electrolysis #DataCenters #PoweringAI #EnergyTransition #TechnoEconomics #Bankable