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Comment by Georgelemental | Hacker News Reader

It is the way forward if you want a reliable grid. Solar and wind are intermittent, and the storage technology we would need to make them the primary source of power just doesn't exist yet.

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Nuclear power output is incredibly stable but that can be an issue in itself. Produces energy when we don't need it.

The solution will probably be nuclear for base, renewable for excess and storage to balance the difference.

But talk is cheap, lets actually do it.

What do you know about this topic? How much can nuclear ramp up and down to follow demand?

There are a few ways to control nuclear power plant output. You can send the steam someplace else and the generator turns slower. You can also moderate the nuclear reaction using control rods.

Nuclear can ramp up and down very quickly. The only issue is that fuel costs are negligible, so ramping down does not save money.

> Produces energy when we don't need it.

Channel the excess into carbon removal. What's there to loose?

Or hydrogen and synthetic fuels... It is not like we do not have options where to spend energy if it was reasonably available.

Abundant energy doesn’t really sound like a problem to me

I don't understand why it's an either/or situation with nuclear vs solar and wind. Why can't they both be used?

You could, and in some cases it makes sense. But relying on nuclear alone is simpler and often more cost-effective.

What happens if a nuclear power plant in your area has to be shut down for maintenance?

Ever heard of wires? You can send electricity over them.

These are nuclear wires, right? Because apparantely this does not work for solar and wind as I understand?

Yes.

Most of the time when it's night where you are, it's also night 100 miles away.

There's usually more than one plant, and each plant usually has more than one unit (so they go on a sort of rota), and the maintenance is planned months in advance.

The nuclear have capacity factor of 90%+ meaning that on average they produce power 90% or more of all the hours in year, including maintenance. Just build multiple reactors and stagger the maintenance windows so they do not substantially overlap or match the peak demand periods on yearly scale. And "plant" can consist out of multiple independent reactors.

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