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Re:California Declares Grid Emergency by exyi on Thursday September 01, 2022 @10:20AM (#32676593)
non-nuclear green energy works as part of the system. I agree you need nuclear, but you don't need 100% nuclear. If I understand it correctly, the problem now is AC demand which is easier to satisfy with solar. On hot days it tends to be sunny.

Nuclear needs a ton of water for cooling which might also be a problem in the desert. AFAIK that's one of the reasons why France's nuclear plants are struggling currently.

Re:California Declares Grid Emergency by mike_hock on Thursday September 01, 2022 @10:23AM (#32676635)
You can't do 100% nuclear as you need something responsive that can react to spikes.
Re:California Declares Grid Emergency by danhor on Thursday September 01, 2022 @10:31AM (#32676794)
Even worse, if you have a large amount of wind & solar, the remaining power sources have to be very flexible. Nuclear is very non-flexible (especially in the financial sense).
Re:California Declares Grid Emergency by p1mrx on Thursday September 01, 2022 @11:19AM (#32677626)
High temperature reactors can react to spikes, by storing heat in a molten salt before driving the turbines.