Three DOE National Labs (ORNL, ANL, INL) Report on the Conversion of Coal Plants to Nuclear Plants.

[hunter]

8. Presumably, if nuclear power plants were running full power, 24/7...

... producing transportation fuels from atmospheric or oceanic carbon dioxide, desalinating water, and producing electricity, the greater problem wouldn't be peak electrical demands, it would be what to do with the excess electricity when demand is low.

In the drought-stricken Southwestern U.S.A. this electricity might be used to pump desalinated water to higher elevations than would otherwise be practicable, for example to Lake Mead (elevation 375 meters when full) or Shasta Lake (325 meters).

If we ban fossil fuels, as we must, the primary purpose of many nuclear power plants won't be the production of electricity, it will be the production of transportation fuels such as DME and synthetic fuel oils. In other places the primary purpose of these plants will be desalinization. In either case electricity becomes an abundant side product of these other industries.

In the long term I look forward to a time when we can restore lands and rivers damaged by other forms of energy development to something resembling a natural state; not just the coal strip mines, but the removal of dams and large scale solar and wind projects as well.