3 ms·

> Capacity factors are usually given for a year That inherently misrepresents nuclear when the fueling cycle lasts longer than a year and maintenance cycles ex

by Retric 2y ago

> Capacity factors are usually given for a year That inherently misrepresents nuclear when the fueling cycle lasts longer than a year and maintenance cycles extend across decades. But again reliability is the ability to provide a service. A full multi week outage can’t be patched over via batteries, you need redundancy. Suppose your an island nation considering looking to get 3GW of nuclear. You’d like the most efficient option of really huge 1.5 GW reactors but if any of them is offline you’re already at 50% output. It’s going to happen, and the grid needs to be able to deal with it, in practice it would need to be able to deal with both being offline for weeks.. > The idea that 93%-96% capacity factors somehow make nuclear power "unreliable" is ... "interesting". Even a 95% capacity factor over a year can represent near perfect uptime OR include a random 2 week outage with zero notice during absolutely peak seasonal demand. But again lifetime averages are often in the 80% range and that’s not from fueling cycles alone. Many multi month outages are guaranteed to happen during a plants lifespan requiring further redundancy based around the assumption that nuclear is unavoidable.

mpweiher 2y ago
Simply repeating this stuff doesn't make it any more salient. Ocne again: bring actual evidence for a grid-level electricity generator that is more reliable than nuclear. And with "source" I mean actual evidence, not your say-so. Maybe start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_factor#/media/File:US_EIA_monthly_capacity_factors_2011-2013.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_factor#/media/File:US... I won't be holding my breath for you to deliver that evidence.
- Retric 2y ago
  Evidence like the 18 different US nuclear power plants at 0 output on this list Right Now. Plenty of them are at 100% and a few are at lower output based on grid demand, but 18 are simply offline due to the unreliable nature of nuclear. https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/reactor-status/ps.html https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/... (Not real time but updated daily.) The wonderful thing about being correct is the evidence is plentiful. I didn’t pick some random day that happens to be bad. It’s the middle of the day so many natural gas peaking power plants are online to meet surging demand, but all this nuclear simply isn’t available. And it’s not available due to the inherent unreliable nature of the technology. Extremely expensive natural gas being used Today specifically because nuclear energy doesn’t work the way you think it does. PS: You’re not going to see this kind of nationwide tracking for say coal because the availability so just so much better. Total outages are less frequent and don’t lass nearly as long.
  - mpweiher 2y ago
    That is not evidence for your claim. I don't think you even know what your claim is.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - Retric 2y ago
      Your reading comprehension issues aren’t my fault. I’ve been saying nuclear is regularly unavailable to produce power for extended periods making it unreliable over long timescales. I bring up long term capacity factors being much lower than your claimed ~95% as a sign of this. I point to many nuclear power plants currently unable to produce power for an extended period. Things don’t get much simpler than that.
      - mpweiher 2y ago
        Reading is not the problem. What you don't seem to understand is that you repeatedly writing something does not actually make it true. In fact, given your record here, you repeatedly writing something is a pretty good indicator of it being false. And this claim of yours remains absurdly false, no matter how often you repeat it. You point to the past, which is completely irrelevant, and you point to single plants, which is also completely irrelevant, as the fleet is pretty large. The total and current capacity factor for nuclear power in the US is in the 90s. Doesn't get much simpler than that. And you've yet to produce an electricity source with a higher capacity factor. Because you can't. Because your claim is simply not true. And will remain untrue no matter how often you repeat it or how many other irrelevant stats you pull. Capacity. Factor. 90s.

by Retric 2y ago

mpweiher 2y ago

Simply repeating this stuff doesn't make it any more salient. Ocne again: bring actual evidence for a grid-level electricity generator that is more reliable than nuclear. And with "source" I mean actual evidence, not your say-so. Maybe start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_factor#/media/File:US_EIA_monthly_capacity_factors_2011-2013.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_factor#/media/File:US... I won't be holding my breath for you to deliver that evidence.

Retric 2y ago
Evidence like the 18 different US nuclear power plants at 0 output on this list Right Now. Plenty of them are at 100% and a few are at lower output based on grid demand, but 18 are simply offline due to the unreliable nature of nuclear. https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/reactor-status/ps.html https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/... (Not real time but updated daily.) The wonderful thing about being correct is the evidence is plentiful. I didn’t pick some random day that happens to be bad. It’s the middle of the day so many natural gas peaking power plants are online to meet surging demand, but all this nuclear simply isn’t available. And it’s not available due to the inherent unreliable nature of the technology. Extremely expensive natural gas being used Today specifically because nuclear energy doesn’t work the way you think it does. PS: You’re not going to see this kind of nationwide tracking for say coal because the availability so just so much better. Total outages are less frequent and don’t lass nearly as long.
- mpweiher 2y ago
  That is not evidence for your claim. I don't think you even know what your claim is.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - Retric 2y ago
    Your reading comprehension issues aren’t my fault. I’ve been saying nuclear is regularly unavailable to produce power for extended periods making it unreliable over long timescales. I bring up long term capacity factors being much lower than your claimed ~95% as a sign of this. I point to many nuclear power plants currently unable to produce power for an extended period. Things don’t get much simpler than that.
    - mpweiher 2y ago
      Reading is not the problem. What you don't seem to understand is that you repeatedly writing something does not actually make it true. In fact, given your record here, you repeatedly writing something is a pretty good indicator of it being false. And this claim of yours remains absurdly false, no matter how often you repeat it. You point to the past, which is completely irrelevant, and you point to single plants, which is also completely irrelevant, as the fleet is pretty large. The total and current capacity factor for nuclear power in the US is in the 90s. Doesn't get much simpler than that. And you've yet to produce an electricity source with a higher capacity factor. Because you can't. Because your claim is simply not true. And will remain untrue no matter how often you repeat it or how many other irrelevant stats you pull. Capacity. Factor. 90s.