Nuclear power by country
Nuclear power plants currently operate in 31 countries. Most are in Europe, North America, East Asia and South Asia. The United States is the largest producer of nuclear power, while France has the largest share of electricity generated by nuclear power. In 2010, before the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, it was reported that an average of about 10 nuclear reactors were expected to become operational per year, although according to the World Nuclear Association, of the 17 civilian reactors planned to become operational between 2007 and 2009, only five actually came on stream.[3] Global nuclear electricity generation in 2012 was at its lowest level since 1999.[4][5]
China has the fastest growing nuclear power program with 28 new reactors under construction,[6] and a considerable number of new reactors are also being built in India, Russia and South Korea. At the same time, at least 100 older and smaller reactors will "most probably be closed over the next 10–15 years".[3]
Some countries operated nuclear reactors in the past but have currently no operating nuclear plants. Among them, Italy closed all of its nuclear stations by 1990 and nuclear power has since been declared illegal in a referendum. Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Armenia are planning to reintroduce nuclear power in the future.
Several countries are currently operating nuclear power plants but are planning a nuclear power phase-out. These are Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. Other countries, like Netherlands, Sweden, and Taiwan are also considering a phase-out. Austria never started to use its first nuclear plant that was completely built.
Due to financial, political and technical reasons, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, and Poland never completed the construction of their first nuclear plants, and Australia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ghana, Ireland, Kuwait, Oman, Peru, Singapore, and Venezuela never built their planned first nuclear plants.[7][8]
Overview
Of the 31 countries in which nuclear power plants operate, only France, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belgium, and Hungary use them as the source for a majority of the country's electricity supply. Other countries have significant amounts of nuclear power generation capacity.[9] By far the largest nuclear electricity producers are the United States with 805 647 GWh of nuclear electricity in 2017, followed by France with 381 846 GWh.[9] As of December 2017 448 reactors with
net capacity of 391 721 MWe are operational and 59 reactors with net capacity of 60 460 MWe are under construction, of those 18 reactors with 19 016 MWe in China.[10]
Country | Number of operated reactors |
Capacity Net-total (MWe) |
Generated electricity (GWh) |
Share of total electricity use |
---|---|---|---|---|
3 | 1633 | 5716.27 | 4.5% | |
1 | 375 | 2411.39 | 32.5% | |
7 | 5918 | 40186.70 | 49.9% | |
2 | 1884 | 14854.33 | 2.7% | |
2 | 1926 | 14872.26 | 34.3% | |
19 | 13554 | 95131.20 | 14.6% | |
39 | 34514 | 232796.74 | 3.9% | |
6 | 3930 | 26784.68 | 33.1% | |
4 | 2769 | 21573.97 | 33.2% | |
58 | 63130 | 381846.02 | 71.6% | |
8 | 10799 | 72162.80 | 11.6% | |
4 | 1889 | 15218.92 | 50.0% | |
22 | 6255 | 20004.34 | 3.2% | |
1 | 915 | 6366.21 | 2.2% | |
42 | 39752 | 29285.05 | 3.6% | |
25 | 23070 | 141278.32 | 27.1% | |
2 | 1552 | 10571.92 | 6.0% | |
1 | 482 | 3263.18 | 2.9% | |
5 | 1318 | 8108.93 | 6.2% | |
2 | 1300 | 10580.15 | 17.6% | |
35 | 26142 | 190115.15 | 17.8% | |
4 | 1814 | 14015.82 | 54.0% | |
1 | 688 | 5967.83 | 39.1% | |
2 | 1860 | 15087.29 | 6.7% | |
7 | 7121 | 55627.75 | 21.2% | |
9 | 9102 | 63062.89 | 39.6% | |
5 | 3333 | 19590.70 | 33.4% | |
6 | 5052 | 21560.47 | 9.3% | |
15 | 13107 | 80405.85 | 55.1% | |
15 | 8918 | 63886.83 | 19.3% | |
99 | 99952 | 805647.33 | 20.0% | |
World total | 451 | 394,054 MWe | 2,488 TWh |
Nuclear power policy by country
History of deployment
The first nuclear reactor, known as Chicago Pile-1, was built in the United States and achieved criticality on December 2, 1942. The reactor was part of the Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb. The United Kingdom, Canada,[12] and the USSR proceeded to research and develop nuclear industries over the course of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Electricity was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951, at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho, which initially produced about 100 kW.[13][14]
On June 27, 1954, the USSR's Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant became the world's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid, and produced around 5 megawatts of electric power.[15][16] Later in 1954, Lewis Strauss, then chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (U.S. AEC, forerunner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the United States Department of Energy) spoke of electricity in the future being "too cheap to meter".[17] Strauss was very likely referring to hydrogen fusion[18] —which was secretly being developed as part of Project Sherwood at the time—but Strauss's statement was interpreted as a promise of very cheap energy from nuclear fission. The U.S. AEC itself had issued far more realistic testimony regarding nuclear fission to the U.S. Congress only months before, projecting that "costs can be brought down... [to]... about the same as the cost of electricity from conventional sources..."[19]
14 years after the first nuclear reactor in the US, Asia's first reactor, Apsara, was designed and built in India in 1956. Apsara, designed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, reached criticality at 3:45 p.m on 4 August 1956 and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Nehru on 20 January 1957.[20]
List of nuclear power reactors by country
Only the commercial reactors registered with the International Atomic Energy Agency (as of October 2017) are listed below.
Country | Operating | Under construction |
References and notes |
---|---|---|---|
3 | 1 | ||
1 | 0 | Replacement[21] | |
0 | 1 | Construction on the first nuclear power plant began in 2018, at Rooppur in Rangpur, a district adjacent to the capital city Dhaka. The construction work of the major phase was officially inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina on 14th July, 2018. This plant is estimated to be completed by 2022. A second plant is still in the planning stage. | |
0 | 2 | Under construction | |
7 | 0 | ||
2 | 1 | [22] | |
2 | 0 | Four reactors were shut down in 2004 and 2007. Belene Nuclear Power Plant construction was officially terminated in March 2012.[23] | |
19 | 0 | ||
38 | 19 | 58 GWe by 2020 | |
6 | 0 | ||
0 | 0 | 4 reactors expected to be completed by 2024.[24] | |
4 | 1 | As of 2012, TVO is planning a new reactor to be built and operational by 2020.[25] | |
58 | 1 | First French EPR under construction at Flamanville | |
8 | 0 | Phase-out in place by 2022. | |
4 | 0 | Paks2 [2*1200MW] signed with Rosatom in 2014. | |
22 | 6 | Six reactors with a cumulative capacity of 4300 MW are under construction as of 2016. | |
1 | 0 | The first reactor of Bushehr Plant has power generation capacity of 915 MW[26] | |
39 | 2 | After Fukushima, Japan shut down all of its original 54 nuclear reactors, some of them permanently.[27] As of May 2018, there are 39 operable reactors in Japan. Of these, 9 reactors in 5 power plants are currently operating.[28] Additionally, 5 reactors have been approved for restart and further 12 have restart applications under review.[29][28] | |
2 | 0 | ||
1 | 0 | ||
5 | 2 | KANUUP-II and KANUUP-III are under construction and are expected to be completed by 2020. | |
2 | 0 | 20 January 2011, GDF Suez, Iberdrola and RWE pulled out of the project. | |
35 | 7 | 7 new reactors expected to be completed by 2020 | |
0 | 0 | 16 nuclear power reactors over the next 25 years[30] | |
4 | 2 | ||
1 | 0 | ||
2 | 0 | South Africa will be building a further 9600 MW, 6-8 reactors, by 2030[31][32] | |
24 | 3 | ||
7 | 0 | Stable[33] | |
8 | 0 | ||
5 | 0 | Phase-out in place, first decommissioning 2029.[34] | |
6 | 2 | All nuclear power plants planned to be phased-out by 2025, however, the viability of this is highly uncertain.[35] | |
0 | 2 | ||
15 | 2 | 2 new reactors by 2018.[36][37] | |
0 | 4 | 4 reactors expected to be operational 2018–2020[38][39] | |
15 | 0 | ||
99 | 2 | ||
World | 448 | 57 |
See also
References
- 1 2 "World Nuclear Power Reactors & Uranium Requirements". World Nuclear Association. 1 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
- ↑ Annika Breidthardt (30 May 2011). "German government wants nuclear exit by 2022 at latest". Reuters.
- 1 2 Michael Dittmar. Taking stock of nuclear renaissance that never was Sydney Morning Herald, 18 August 2010.
- ↑ WNA (20 June 2013). "Nuclear power down in 2012". World Nuclear News.
- ↑ "The Nuclear Renaissance".
- ↑ "China Nuclear Power - Chinese Nuclear Energy".
- ↑ Duroyan Fertl (5 June 2011). "Germany: Nuclear power to be phased out by 2022". Green Left.
- ↑ James Kanter (25 May 2011). "Switzerland Decides on Nuclear Phase-Out". New York Times.
- 1 2 3 "Nuclear Share of Electricity Generation in 2017". IAEA. 24 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
- ↑ Nuclear Power Reactors in the World (PDF). Vienna: International Atomic Energy Agency. 2018. ISBN 978-92-0-101418-4.
- 1 2 "Operational & Long-Term Shutdown Reactors". IAEA. 13 April 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ↑ Bain, Alastair S.; et al. (1997). Canada enters the nuclear age: a technical history of Atomic Energy of Canada. Magill-Queen's University Press. p. ix. ISBN 0-7735-1601-8.
- ↑ "Reactors Designed by Argonne National Laboratory: Fast Reactor Technology". U.S. Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory. 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
- ↑ "Reactor Makes Electricity." Popular Mechanics, March 1952, p. 105.
- ↑ "From Obninsk Beyond: Nuclear Power Conference Looks to Future". International Atomic Energy Agency. Retrieved 2006-06-27.
- ↑ "Nuclear Power in Russia". World Nuclear Association. Retrieved 2006-06-27.
- ↑ "This Day in Quotes: SEPTEMBER 16 – Too cheap to meter: the great nuclear quote debate". This day in quotes. 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ↑ Pfau, Richard (1984) No Sacrifice Too Great: The Life of Lewis L. Strauss University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, p. 187 ISBN 978-0-8139-1038-3
- ↑ David Bodansky (2004). Nuclear Energy: Principles, Practices, and Prospects. Springer. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-387-20778-0. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ↑ http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_025_08_0245_0245_0.pdf
- ↑ "USA supports new nuclear build in Armenia". World Nuclear News. 23 November 2007. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
- ↑ Agência Estado (12 September 2008). "Lobão diz que país fará uma usina nuclear por ano em 50 anos" (in Portuguese). G1.globo.com. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
- ↑ Bulgaria quits Belene Nuclear Power Plant project, Novinite, 28 March 2012
- ↑ "Egypt, Russia sign deal to build a nuclear power plant". reuters.com.
- ↑ "Kolme uutta reaktoria, Jees!". Tekniikka ja talous. 15 October 2009. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
- ↑ F_405. "Iran's Bushehr nuke power plant at full capacity from May 23: Russian contractor - People's Daily Online". English.peopledaily.com.cn. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ↑ "Nuclear Power in Japan | Japanese Nuclear Energy - World Nuclear Association". www.world-nuclear.org. World Nuclear Association. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
- 1 2 "Genkai unit 4 supplying power again". www.world-nuclear-news.org. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
- ↑ "Nuclear Power Plants in Japan - The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan(FEPC)". www.fepc.or.jp. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- ↑ http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-o-s/saudi-arabia.aspx
- ↑ "Nuclear Power in South Africa". Retrieved 12 April 2015.
- ↑ "S.Africa wants nuclear contracts to stay at home". Reuters. 23 April 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ↑ Nuclear power in Spain Archived 28 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine., World Nuclear Association, URL accessed 13 June 2006
- ↑ Associated Press (28 September 2011). "Swiss Nuclear Power Plan Moves Toward Phase-Out Of Reactors". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ↑ "Taiwan to end nuclear power generation in 2025:The Asahi Shimbun". The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
- ↑ "BBC NEWS | Politics | New nuclear plants get go-ahead". News.bbc.co.uk. 10 January 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
- ↑ "Nuclear Power in Ukraine". World Nuclear Association. August 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
- ↑ "Nuclear Power United Arab Emirates | UAE Nuclear Energy | Abu Dhabi | Dubai". www.world-nuclear.org. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
- ↑ "UAE's fourth power reactor under construction - EE Publishers". EE Publishers. Retrieved 19 October 2015.