Comment by AnthonyMouse
8 hours ago
The US is using natural gas because of politics, and even that is significantly better than coal. This also doesn't explain why China (at ~5%) hasn't managed the same percentage of nuclear as the US (~18%).
Or why they need that amount of coal when they have even more hydro than the US, which is much better at load-following than coal and should have been used to displace coal rather than nuclear.
> This also doesn't explain why China (at ~5%) hasn't managed the same percentage of nuclear as the US (~18%)
They started way later.
What makes you think hydro displaced nuclear in China?
They have more hydro and less nuclear. Hydro can displace anything when you have the geography suitable to actually build it. Which means the thing it displaced is the thing they have less of. They built new coal instead of new nuclear.