Techno- economic modelling tools for nuclear hydrogen production: a comparative evaluation based on case study results

In a context of growing interest in non-conventional uses of nuclear energy such as producing nuclear-powered hydrogen using nuclear electricity and/or heat, there is a need for Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) tools to investigate such hybrid systems in their entirety. This article proposes a comprehensive evaluation of five TEA tools for nuclear-powered hydrogen: HydCalc and HEEP (IAEA), H2A (NREL), OptimHyzer (Westinghouse) and Cairn (CEA).The comparative assessment combines qualitative and quantitative analysis. The qualitative assessment focuses on nine features such as the time resolution, the field of application, the transparency and the update frequency. The quantitative assessment is grounded in a detailed case study, located at Rivne nuclear power plant in Ukraine, based on comprehensive data from the EURATOM-funded NPHyCO project. The comparison focuses on the levelized cost of hydrogen, using a progressively complex reference case to differentiate among five tools.This work makes a novel contribution by benchmarking TEA tools not previously assessed in a comparative context and by comparing both qualitative features and quantitative performance indicators in a unified evaluation framework. This integrated approach reveals important differences between the selected tools and provides practical guidance for selecting the most appropriate one at various stages of nuclear hydrogen project development.