[Entrepreneur]

his solution (more nukes) is something we should have been doing all along. In fact, as much as I hate to say it, we may even be smart to follow what the French have done with their nuclear program.

The one problem we've got with nukes is they are only good for base load. You can't simple dial down a nuke plant when demand drops overnight with cooler temperatures, less business activity, etc. We need peaking capacity, which means oil and gas combustion turbines.

The French get high levels of nuclear power in their mix because they can wheel excess capacity off to their neighbors.

That said, we can easily triple or quadruple our nuclear capacity.

[OA5599]

What makes you say nukes are only good for base load? Not saying you are wrong; I just don’t know.

I know nothing of commercial reactors, but I know that naval reactors have no trouble answering all ahead flank from a dead stop and back down again.

The fossil plant I work at now was originally a base unit (five base units actually). Of the three in year long service, they regularly hit 375 MW by day and are scaled back to 75 MW at night.

[xmission]

The one problem we've got with nukes is they are only good for base load. You can't simple dial down a nuke plant when demand drops overnight with cooler temperatures, less business activity, etc.

This was disputed here yesterday. Evidently it is hard with Westinghouse Plants, but very easy with GE plants.