[tjansen]

> Storing hydrogen at scale seems insanely difficult

Yes, it's difficult, but at least in Germany hydrogen is considered as the most likely carbon-free fuel for trucks.

> desalinating water wouldn't let you use the energy later.

Storing desalinated water shouldn't be difficult, you can fill up lakes.

> like pumping water up hill and holding it behind a hydroelectric dam.

That would make sense as a backup for an unreliable power source like wind, but probably not for nuclear power.

[ZeroGravitas]

Many pumped hydro station were originally built to use cheap overnight electricity from nuclear plants when demand was low, and timeshift it to spikes of demand later.