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?