3 ms·
I'm an advocate for nuclear power, but I have to point out that this isn't actually true. A nuclear plant can load-follow to a certain extent if it is designed
by mnw21cam 5y ago
I'm an advocate for nuclear power, but I have to point out that this isn't actually true. A nuclear plant can load-follow to a certain extent if it is designed to do so, but if you reduce the power output of a nuclear reactor below a certain threshold then the reactor will need a decent period of time (around a day) to cool down before it can be started up again.
The fundamental problem is nuclear physics itself. Running a nuclear reactor produces Xenon-135, which has a huge potential to soak up neutrons, and therefore given half a chance will try to shut down the nuclear reaction. When the reactor is going full pelt, then there are enough neutrons flying around to burn up the Xenon, and all is good. When you reduce power output, then there is still a large amount of Xenon in the reactor, and it will soak up lots of the neutrons and reactivity of the reactor, shutting the reaction down. The Xenon takes about a day to decay by itself down to a level where it is safe to restart the reactor again. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon-135 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon-135 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_poison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_poison
One of the contributing factors towards the Chernobyl accident was the reactor controllers trying to overcome the effects of Xenon by pulling the control rods of the reactor out. This made the reactor highly unstable, because as the reaction rate increases the Xenon will be burned off increasing the reactivity, which can lead to the reaction ramping up very quickly.