My understanding is that while load following is possible in nuclear plants, there are significant design, efficiency, and cost compromises involved. For these

My understanding is that while load following is possible in nuclear plants, there are significant design, efficiency, and cost compromises involved. For these reasons, load-following nuclear is fairly rare. In the UK, all of our nuclear power plants operate at their design capacity all the time. Their output only changes during scheduled periods when they are shut down for maintenance, refuelling, etc. In contrast, all of the remaining coal-fired power plants in the UK effectively operate as load-following reserve. They ramp up only on cold winter days when demand is high and when wind generation is low. There are now many "coal free" days in the warmer months where there is no coal-fired power generation in the UK at all (it looks like today will be one of them!)