Earlier quoted context omitted.
France is using some of their nuclear plants to provide peak load, and they adjust the power output of most of their plants over the day to better fit the actual usage. Their reactors are not ideal for this; there are better ways to design nuclear plants for load-following. But it can certainly be done. Alternately, you could make enough nuclear capacity to provide your peak power levels all the time , and dump exces…
Alternately, you could make enough nuclear capacity to provide your peak power levels all the time, and dump excess energy into some energy-hungry industrial process, like aluminum smelting, or synthetic fuel production, or ammonia synthesis Heck, you don't have to do anything with it, just disconnect your turbines from your generators.
Re: Thorium Instead Of Uranium: Solution To Our Energy Woes?
#71Good idea on the face but the energy needs to be dumped somewhere and dumping that much excess energy is tough and costly. Used to work in the industry, if the turbines tripped or anything else happened along the way, you SCRAM immediately as a safety precaution.