> “nuclear isn’t quickly dispatchable, which is what we need” > something needs to turn on in the next 5 minutes or streetlights start going out. Right now, nu

> “nuclear isn’t quickly dispatchable, which is what we need” > something needs to turn on in the next 5 minutes or streetlights start going out. Right now, nuclear isn’t capable of filling that niche. Depends on the reactor. A single ~1GW reactor should be able to adjust its output up by 150MW or so in 5 minutes. If you have multiple that number multiplies obviously. For example a typical reactor in France with a max output of 1300MW can be adjusted all the way down to 400MW within 30 minutes (and up to max 1300MW output from minimumn 400MW in the same time). If they could not do that there is no way France could generate 70%+ of their electricity with nuclear. (obviously the reactor has to be designed with the goal of being adjustable for it to be able to do this. France started to do this in the 80s) edit: Though because the vast majority of the costs of running a nuclear power plant is in building/maintaining it and running it at max vs min output costs the same amount of money most owners want to run their reactor at max output always.