WORLD NUKE POWER DROPS

Global Nuclear Generation Capacity Falls
Supriya Kumar, December 6, 2011 (Worldwatch Institute)

"Due to increasing costs of production, a slowed demand for electricity, and fresh memories of disaster in Japan, production of nuclear power fell in 2011…Despite reaching record levels the previous year, global installed nuclear capacity—the potential power generation from all existing plants—declined to 366.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2011, from 375.5 GW at the end of 2010.

"…Nuclear’s share of world commercial primary energy usage fell to around 5 percent in 2010, having peaked at about 6 percent in 2001 and 2002. Only four countries—the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom—increased their share of nuclear power by over 1 percentage point between 2009 and 2010. [Germany took around 8 GW of installed nuclear capacity offline this year. Construction on the first nuclear power plant to be built in France in 15 years was delayed until 2016, and its projected cost grew from €3.3 billion (Approximately USD 4.4 billion) to €6 billion (Approximately USD 8 billion)]…"

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"…Although construction on 16 new reactors began in 2010—the highest number in over two decades—that number fell to just two in 2011, with India and Pakistan each starting construction on a plant…[And] the first 10 months of 2011 saw the closing of 13 nuclear reactors, reducing the total number of reactors in operation around the world from 441 at the beginning of the year to 433.

"China is an exception to the global slump in nuclear electricity generation…[It] accounted for 10 of the 16 reactor construction starts in 2010, and… nearly 10 GW of capacity, representing 62 percent of capacity construction worldwide. China currently is home to 27 reactors and has some 27 GW of capacity under construction…The United States, too, does not appear to be abandoning nuclear power just yet…[In February of 2011, the Obama administration budget proposed $44.3 billion] in loan guarantees for construction of nuclear reactors…"