In my comparisons with nuclear to coal and solar, I've described nuclear power plants as being used for the "base load" of the grid, meaning they provide the absolute minimum amount of power expected to be drawn by the grid. Obviously, the grid spends most of the day demanding more than this minimum level of power, and the power requirements can fluctuate across a large range throughout the day. These power fluctuations are covered by "load following" power plants, which means plants that can vary their power outputs easily to match the needs of the grid.
Traditionally, nuclear power plants have been ran as base load and load following plants have been natural gas plants. However, it has been brought to my attention that updates to nuclear power technology allows the possibility for load following operation. [1] Countries that have been a large percentage nuclear powered (like France and Germany) have developed control systems sensitive enough and fast enough to change the power level of the plant as the grid demands.
This is a huge step forward for the possibility for a country to be almost entirely nuclear powered (and proved to be a necessity for France which was 80%+ nuclear before they started shutting plants down for entirely political reasons). Though the technology is still years away from being as sensitive and effective as a gas power plant, the possibility for load following without fossil fuels is an area very deserving in further research.
[1] https://www.oecd-nea.org/nea-news/2011/29-2/nea-news-29-2-load-following-e.pdf
Something I really enjoyed from a previous semester was when Vernetson would give us updates about plant upgrades during systems class. Does anybody remember the name of the group who publishes it and/or where it is published?
ReplyDeleteDo you know how reactors load follow? Can reactors that don't load follow change to be load following? It would be really interesting to see if we could revitalize the american nuclear industry to load follow.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely second Nuclear Nancy's questions. But it is great to see the possibility of this and it hopefully is just part one of your blog. I hope the next one talks about how this works. I see how the insensitivity of nuclear power can be prohibitive to a country relying solely on it thus as we push for all-nuclear its great to see more about these options.
ReplyDeleteFrance is shutting down reactors? I need to pay more attention to the news. They've been the poster child for nuclear for a long time.
ReplyDeleteWhat are they replacing the nuclear power with?