Recently, NewHydrogen, based in Santa Clarita, California, unveiled a breakthrough technology. Its ThermoLoop™ technology can use water and heat to replace electricity in producing clean hydrogen, and small modular reactors (SMRs) have been proven to be a perfect match for this technology. The combination of the two is expected to produce cheaper clean hydrogen.
Steve Hill, CEO of NewHydrogen, stated that nuclear energy offers unparalleled baseload reliability and, more importantly, provides abundant and continuous high-temperature heat, which is the core raw material required by ThermoLoop technology to produce low-cost clean hydrogen. At the same time, nuclear energy is a clean energy source, and small reactors do not produce greenhouse gas emissions during operation. He emphasized that to make clean hydrogen a core part of the energy mix, the solution must be scalable to meet huge demand, and the modular nature of SMRs fits this requirement perfectly. SMRs are manufactured in factories, can consist of single or multiple modules, allow flexible matching of module numbers based on power demand, and individual modules can be maintained offline to ensure continuous operation.
Taking a 50 MW small SMR as an example, combined with ThermoLoop technology that has an energy efficiency of 50%, it can produce approximately 54 mt of hydrogen per day. This is enough to supply 54 standard 1 mt hydrogen refueling stations, meeting the daily refueling needs of 10,000 hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles, achieving the scale and reliability required for a hydrogen economy. It is worth noting that a large amount of heat generated by nuclear reactors often goes unused. The ThermoLoop process can convert this waste heat into energy, continuously splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen without the need for electricity or fossil fuels. When integrated with nuclear power plants, this technology not only supports global decarbonization but also creates new revenue streams for the plants.
Currently, governments in the US, Japan, and European countries are accelerating the construction of nuclear power plants and streamlining approval processes to cope with the surge in energy demand driven by artificial intelligence data centers and electrified transportation. According to ICF International's "2025 Nuclear Energy Growth Report," SMRs are the cornerstone of the next generation of nuclear power but face challenges in cost competitiveness. However, combining SMRs with ThermoLoop can form a robust cogeneration solution, producing both electricity and hydrogen from the same heat source, significantly improving project economics.
Nuclear energy and hydrogen can be seen as mutually reinforcing technologies: nuclear energy provides around-the-clock, zero-carbon heat, while hydrogen serves as a flexible carrier for storage, transportation, and industrial use. Together, they form complementary pathways for large-scale decarbonization and long-term energy security. Hill concluded that the development of SMRs is highly significant for ThermoLoop. As countries race to build reliable, carbon-free energy capacity, this technology can directly convert nuclear heat into clean hydrogen, offering economic advantages to operators while providing a critical fuel for the clean energy transition. Integrating ThermoLoop into SMR plants enables the creation of new-type multi-output clean energy facilities, achieving continuous, efficient, and large-scale production of electricity and hydrogen.
