[UltraSane]

The sane and sensible thing to do would have been to phase out coal instead of nuclear, then Germany would have as low of CO2 emissions per KWh as France. What does Germany plan to use for dispatch-able power when wind and solar don't supply enough?

[uecker]

I agree that one should have phased out coal faster instead of nuclear. Also with nuclear one needs dispatch-able power because demand is also variable and one does not use nuclear for balancing. But one certainly needs more with renewables. For the time being this is gas (which is a small fraction of overall gas use in Germany). In the long-term it will be replaced batteries for short duration and likely back-conversion of synthetic gas if there is a longer period. Biomass and demand-side electricity management will also help. Overall, I do not see a fundamental problem.

[UltraSane]

French PWRs routinely load-follow, ramping 1-5% of rated power per minute. With ~70% nuclear generation, they had no choice but to design for flexibility. Their N4 and newer reactors can operate between 20-100% power on demand.

[uecker]

This is not about technical possibility, but about economics. The cost of nuclear is capital cost while operating costs are small, you want to run your plant at maximum capacity.

[UltraSane]

France has cheaper electricity that Germany.

[uecker]

You are repeating talking points without understanding. First, there are different prices which also change in time. Also, the price households pay does not relate to generation cost. But even the wholesale price is does not necessarily do this. In France, the problem is that EDF is required to sell electricity from old nuclear plants very cheaply, but this is not even good for the nuclear industry, in fact, it one reason (the other are why it now has a lot debts and is not able to do the necessary investments. But even without these historical rules, it is difficult to fund new nuclear power plants using the expected price levels for electricity in Europe.

https://energynews.oedigital.com/nuclear-power/2025/12/11/fi...