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Why can't nuclear not be turned on and off at will? I understand you can't just fire up and down a reactor, but you can control the steam flow to the generator, and let that redirect directly to the cooling tower at will?

The real problem appears to be buffer capacity.



Turning on and off quickly is difficult and/or expensive for all of CCGT/OCGT gas, coal and nuclear. Turning up/down is much less so however, and in reality that's often how it works.




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