4 ms·

> Also: did you know that all existing commercial nuclear plants can ramp up and down in power at about 2-3% (~25 MWe) per minute? How often can they repeatedl

> Also: did you know that all existing commercial nuclear plants can ramp up and down in power at about 2-3% (~25 MWe) per minute? How often can they repeatedly ramp without getting into trouble with reactor poisoning? To load follow with nuclear France devised an entire scheme where their monopoly owner would let reactors take turns reducing their output. Then on top of that the fueling schedule is synced since the later a reactor is in the fuel lifecycle the less it can ramp. Try that on a free market.

troupo 3y ago
> How often can they repeatedly ramp without getting into trouble with reactor poisoning? Every day, several times a day. That is literally the requirement for modern reactors (where modern means any reactor in the past 30 years, or more, and most retrofitted reactors from previous years) Graph and text on page 8: https://www.oecd-nea.org/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-12/technical_and_economic_aspects_of_load_following_with_nuclear_power_plants.pdf https://www.oecd-nea.org/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-12...