[paulyg]

It is true that nuclear power is bad at peaking. That's why no one uses them for that. They are good at base-load power, which is where they are used.

Use the right tool for the job. Different sources of energy have different upsides and downsides and we should take advantage of those. Use wind and solar (possibly backed by batteries) and natural gas as peak load generation because they are good at that. And use nuclear as the base load.

I agree with the premise floated by the 1st expert in the article that we are not rewarding nuclear for its carbon free generation. The reason utilities are closing nuclear plants are because of the deregulation of electric power and creation of power supply "markets". Nuclear has to compete on price alone against cheap natural gas and subsidized renewables (not only are the fuel sources of those cheap, so are the capital costs compared to nuclear).

Re your PS, are you saying that hydrogen atoms in coal DO NOT combine with oxygen to create water during combustion? Because my college education and career as a mechanical engineer taught me otherwise.

[Retric]

Using batteries for grid storage is terrible compared to pumped hydro and on demand hydro.

We agree on the chemistry. The point of my ps is the C becomes CO2 the H becomes H2O, but we don't care about H2O. Which is why hydrocarbons produce less CO2 per watt than coal.

[snuxoll]

The downside of PSH of course is the massive reservoirs you have to create, but they have astonishingly good efficiency (I was skeptical when I first heard of the concept, but real-world examples can hit an 80% efficiency target which more than makes up for the constant replacement of batteries and the potential impact of sourcing lithium or other materials depending on who is mining them).

[paulyg]

I agree pumped hydro is good, but there are only so many places you can site it.

> Which is why hydrocarbons produce less CO2 per watt than coal.

No. It has nothing to do with water. Coal is a hydrocarbon as well. It has to do with the type of hydrocarbon chains.

[Retric]

Anthracite coal is up to 85.7% carbon by weight the rest is not pure hydrogen but a mix of sulfur, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. (And yes, that Oxygen lowers the energy density while increasing CO2 release.)

Natural gas is 25% hydrogen 75% carbon.

Burning hydrogen produces water not CO2.

So, while the specific bonds play a role the actual carbon vs. hydrogen content is a major issue.