> 1 nuclear plant would would produce enough elect.to extract hydrogen from water to move us away from fossil fuels
Do the math.
1 barrel of crude oil has chemical potential energy equal to 1,700 kilowatt hours.
A 2GWe nuclear plant dedicated to producing hydrogen operating at 90% electrolytic efficiency would produce hydrogen equivalent to about 26,000 barrels of oil per day. I’m not sure of the current US consumption, but I’m pretty sure that number is well under 1% of total US demand.
Hydrogen has other problems, because of the difficulty in storage, transport, and distribution.
I doubt 90% efficiency in electrolysis is anywhere near possible. The following shows why the Department of Energy is targeting 75% as a hopeful range to reach.
Highly Efficient Hydrogen Generation via Water Electrolysis Using Nanometal Electrodes
http://www.qsinano.com/white_papers/2006_09_15.pdf
FYI, the US consumes almost 21 million barrels per day. The following link includes a breakdown of those products and historical values.
US Petroleum Product Supplied
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_psup_dc_nus_mbblpd_m.htm
So then you build a hundred such plants
One of the biggest costs of building a nuke plant is doing all the studies and paperwork necessary to get approval, plus all the opposition from all the homeowners who would be nearby. It needs to be built fairly close to the electricity consumers, because transmitting electricity over hundreds of miles is expensive
Contrast that with a nuke plant dedicated to making fuel. It could be situated in the middle of one of our larger military reservations out West (no nearby neighbors to complain). You could co-locate multiple 2GW reactors in one place (reducing planning, construction, and operation costs). You could use the waste heat as process heat for ethanol production and coal-to-gasoline conversion. Set up a big set of pipelines to transport the fuel to the rest of the country