On 2005-09-28, Jay Honeck wrote:
I would strongly support a program to make our country more energy
independent by replacing all the dumb new natural-gas-fired power plants
with nuclear plants.

You can't really replace natural gas plants with nuclear plants. Nuclear
plants provide base load power (they can't easily be throttled) for the
continuous supply you always need.

Natural gas plants can be stopped and started in very short order - the
one that's a few miles from where I work essentially is based on the
guts of a couple of Rolls-Royce Trent jet engines coupled to generators.
They can be brought online and shut down as quickly as a Boeing 777 can
be spooled up and shut down. So when demand suddenly starts ramping up,
you can crank up your gas station, and shut it down as soon as the
demand goes away. You can't do that with a nuclear station.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
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