Great article at Forbes Magazine:
Nuclear Power Always Ready For Extreme Weather
As Polar Vortices, Bomb Cyclones and massive hurricanes pummel America more and more often, nuclear power plants keep on putting out maximum power when all other sources can’t.
For the last month, the Pacific Northwest’s only nuclear power plant has been under a “No Touch” order to help keep the heat on as record cold and snow covered the region. I was stuck in my house for eight days.
As reported by Annette Cary of the Tri-City Herald, the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the electricity produced at the nuclear plant near Richland, asked Energy Northwest, the operator of the power plant, not to do anything that would prevent the plant from producing 100% power at all times during an unusually cold February across the state that increased the demand for electricity – no maintenance activities, even on its turbine generator and in the transformer yard. Don’t do anything that would stop the reliable and constant power output of nuclear.
“No Touch” is requested by BPA when unusually hot or cold weather increases the demand for electricity, notes Mike Paoli, spokesman for Energy Northwest. Many regional transmission and system operators across the United States ask nuclear plants to keep running during extreme weather because nuclear plants are the least affected by bad weather.
And these reactors are the old designs - first sketched out on cocktail napkins seventy years ago. There are newer designs that have a lot less problems with waste - in fact, they can use conventional nuclear waste as fuel. These designs are also walk-away safe - they can not melt down. If there is a total system failure, they shut themselves down and remain in a stable state. They do not operate at high pressures so no containment vessel is needed - much cheaper to build.
Here is a five minute excerpt on LFTR:
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