3 ms·

Is nuclear good at scaling up or down production?

• sadris 8y ago
  It's great. France literally does load follow based on demand: raises/lowers control rods throughout the day.
  • toomuchtodo 8y ago
    The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not permit automated load following of US nuclear generators. France and Germany nuclear regulators considered it earlier in the permitting process, hence the functionality exists there (load following incurs higher maintenance costs for components such as valves, but does not incur a higher fuel cost).
• KaiserPro 8y ago
  no. But thats not what its for. It provides solid dependable power. like most gigawatt power generation systems, it takes time to spin up/down. In NY there are plenty of places where one can build on-demand hydro-electric dams, which can tide over short term peaks. Everything else is mostly predictable. In new york state, in summer, peak power should correlate with solar power production during the day, but at night, not so much. So you'll need something to supply all those aircon units. https://www.electricitymap.org/?page=map&solar=false&remote=true&wind=false https://www.electricitymap.org/?page=map&solar=false&remote=... take spain, it has 35% renewable, but it costs 230g per kwh, france, which is almost entirely nuclear is 86g per kwh.