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CHANGING THE WORLD WITH HYDROGEN AND NUCLEAR: FROM PAST SUCCESSES TO SHAPING THE FUTURE
Around the mid-20 th century, the development of nuclear energy had caught up to that of
hydrogen applications. The enthusiasm for nuclear energy lasted until the 1970s until environmental
movements and proliferation concerns gained in strength and the accident of Three Mile Island
occurred in 1979 followed seven years after by that of Chernobyl in 1986. We are only recovering from
this period now hopefully.
Development of hydrogen over the 20 th century
Throughout the 20 th century, hydrogen has received ever-increasing attention as a renewable and
environmentally-friendly option to help meet today’s energy needs. The road leading to an
understanding of hydrogen’s energy potential presents a fascinating tour through scientific discovery
and industrial ingenuity.
In 1920, the British scientist J.B.S. Haldane introduced the concept of renewable hydrogen in his
paper Science and the Future by proposing that “there will be great power stations where during windy
weather the surplus power will be used for the electrolytic decomposition of water into oxygen and
hydrogen.”
Expanding uses of hydrogen over the second half of the 20 th century
Even though all the early rocket theorists proposed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants,
the first liquid-fuelled rocket launched by Robert Goddard on 16 March 1926 used gasoline and liquid
oxygen. Liquid hydrogen was first used by the engines designed by Pratt and Whitney for the Lockheed
CL-400 Suntan reconnaissance aircraft in the mid-1950s. In the mid-1960s, the Centaur and Saturn
upper stages were both using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. In 1958 the United States formed the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA’s space programme used at that time
the most liquid hydrogen world wide, primarily for rocket propulsion and as a fuel for fuel cells.
After hydrogen inflated balloons, this was another revolution in the field of transportation
afforded by hydrogen. Liquid propulsion was instrumental in enabling the race to the moon that led
the astronaut Neil Armstrong to walk on our satellite on 21 July 1968 with the Apollo XI mission.
In 1973, the OPEC oil embargo and the resulting supply shock suggested that the era of cheap
petroleum had ended and that the world needed alternative fuels. The development of hydrogen fuel
cells for conventional commercial applications began and the International Energy Agency (IEA) was
established in 1974 in response to global oil market disruptions.
In 1989 the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) formed in the United States with ten members.
Today, the NHA has nearly 100 members, including representatives from the automobile and aerospace
industries, federal, state and local governments, and energy providers.
In 1990 the world’s first solar-powered hydrogen production plant at Solar-Wasserstoff-Bayern, a
research and testing facility in southern Germany, became operational. In 1994 Daimler Benz
demonstrated its first NECAR I (New Electric CAR) fuel cell vehicle at a press conference in Ulm,
Germany. In 1999 The Royal Dutch/Shell Company committed to a hydrogen future by forming a
hydrogen division. Europe’s first hydrogen fuelling stations were opened in German cities. In 2004 the
German navy launched the first fuel cell-powered submarine.
Four major endeavours gathering hydrogen and nuclear
Over the 20 th century, hydrogen and nuclear not only experienced an active development of their
applications separately, but they also led together to at least four major technology breakthroughs
that revolutionised the sectors of energy and transportation and will shape the future in these domains.
Light water reactors
First, the recognition that hydrogen is the most efficient moderator to slow down fast neutrons gave
birth in the late 1950s to light water reactors that afford a greater compactness and power density
than graphite-moderated cores. This advantage that stems from the lowest atomic mass of hydrogen,
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