this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
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Salon has no respect from me, so I'm not going to generate a click for them.
Since I'm not too familiar with nuclear - how would the on-demand scalability work? My impression has always been that reactors are generating energy at a fairly constant rate.
Oh no, the whole point of control rods is to adjust the rate of reaction in the core, which adjusts the rate of neutron output which adjusts the rate of steam production. Newer reactor designs are even more flexible in how the rods can be used.
Not really. Reaction change when moving the rods is almost instantaneous. Random spikes in grid usage are not that random and any competent power providers can predict and plan accordingly. The only real concern is decay heat things like xenon build up down the road, again something the industry can predict and plan around as standard practice and western built reactors have safety systems built around preventing those factors from becoming serious issues.
Huh, the more you know. I always though the rods were only adjusting it at a single percentage point rate, just enough to not let it blow up!
Thanks for the answer!