Search Results for: load-following

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Ontario’s CANDUs can be more flexible than natural gas and hydro

ByGuest Author

…units has to be changed throughout the day to match the load on the grid, load-following. In Ontario the nuclear units operate baseload but units at Bruce B can be held at reduced output overnight when demand on the grid is low, load-cycling. The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has stated that in general coal-fired units can be dispatched down to 20 percent of full output, and combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units down to 70 perc…

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If you really care about carbon…

ByGuest Author

…Gas works because capital costs are low and it is a suitable resource for load following and intermittent operations. The contrasting cost profiles are shown below. (Source: http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/pdf/electricity_generation.pdf) There are, however, some issues here that don’t get the attention they deserve. First, as gas runs at lower capacity factors (CF) its economics deteriorate (see above). Once the CF reaches levels near 30%, its e…

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Empowering a more prosperous world – one atom for peace at a time

ByRod Adams

…vels of enrichment and continue to produce xenon-135 as a fission product, load-following is going to be an issue. The French seem able to load follow with ~75% of their power from nukes, but slow load changes during a 24 hour day is different from the quick ups and downs from a grid with significant numbers of wind turbines or other chaotic, unpredictable renewables. The trend is to build more and more wind farms as part of a “renewable portfolio…

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Kirk Sorensen – Why didn’t molten salt thorium reactors succeed the first time?

ByRod Adams

…if it is technically capable of doing it, I don’t see any nuclear plant in load following mode unless nukes have completely supplanted fossil generation (as in France). Bill DV82XL “NRPA is a bunch of crack pots peddling junk science.” Gee, do you think? Do you also think that anyone that reads these pages doesn’t know this? Also, while it is true that the US has undeveloped uranium still in the ground, the ore is low-grade and this might make oth…

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Smoking gun – German president of Environmental Protection Agency touts natural gas instead of nuclear

ByRod Adams

…lus reported that it was underway on nuclear power. Designing and building load-following nuclear plants is an engineering choice. Many existing nuclear plants have the technical capability to change loads at least as rapidly as other steam plants, including the steam plants that are a part of high-efficiency gas turbine combined cycle stations. A more rational thing to say is that nuclear plant operators have no logical reason to reduce their out…

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What are radiation protection standards protecting us from?

ByGuest Author

…uclear power plants could not be designed in such a way as to allow better loadfollowing operations, and without reducing the economic viability too much. Is there any documentation about this? Could you point me to it, or do a write-up on this question on your (excellent) blog? That would greatly help me, as this issue is currently the only one that I cannot easily disarm when it comes up in discussion. Thanks Rod Adams @Joris van Dorp Load follo…

Nucleating our carbon-managed future
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Nucleating our carbon-managed future

ByValerie Gardner

…he higher the rate the more heat and electricity generated. This also good load following and would be an excellent fit with renewables on days with overcast or no wind for instance. These reactors are also designed to run on spent nuclear fuel and plutonium from decommissioned nuclear weapons. Another coherent selling point for those who are interested in the best options. The Russians have a saying, “perfect is the enemy of good enough”. We simp…

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ThorCon – Demonstrated Molten Salt Tech Packaged With Modern Construction Techniques

ByRod Adams

…t aimed to respond to a natural circulation question, but one asking about load following for the Thorcon MSR. The flowing mass heat transfer power equation applies to the coolant for contained fuel designs. For fluid fueled designs it applies to the flowing fluid fuel when it is in an area where heat is either generated (the reactor) or transferred (the heat exchanger.) mjd OK, I’m with you. I got lost in the comment thread and thought it had cha…

Why does ERCOT credit wind capacity at less than 9%?

ByRod Adams

…ants actually emit more pollutants (including CO2) per MWh generated while load following than they do running constant baseload. That’s above the dollars cost in wear and tear of cycling that sot of plant. See my 2:00 AM post below for an example of how that plays out in real life. btw, I think the moderation delay has to do with links, not length: the mods apparently feel obliged to check every link for appropriateness and spam. I put up with it…

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Why do nuclear energy developers ask for predictable market prices?

ByRod Adams

…ally allow new designs to come online in a reasonable time frame. Wayne SW Load following is a good technical feature and helps greatly for demand/capacity management and grid stability, but there is not a linear mapping into the economic realm, at least not a large one. NPP economics on the cost side are relatively inelastic. Capital costs are still large. O&M costs are relatively fixed. Throttling back nuclear plant output does not translate int…

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Nuclear proponent versus free market advocate for natural gas

ByRod Adams

…antages of Gen IV designs were going to be cost effective and “real world” load following, beyond the current approaches of overbuilding, low capacity factors, and reliance on a grid for exporting surplus power (which is not a particularly cost effective approach). If Gen IV isn’t going to do load following, I really don’t see the benefits of moving advanced reactor designs to the head of the line (if only to cover just 20% of energy production)?…

IPCC working group III recommends nearly quadrupling nuclear energy

ByRod Adams

…le the thermal inertia problem a little better than the big boys. The only load-following experience I have with larger plants is with BWRs. There, you can achieve some measure of load following using things like recirc flow rate. Dump loads may be an alternative if the demand for those products is there and can be met with a somewhat variable supply. Jeff Walther They might as well be, given that they refuse to embrace any effective solution for…

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