Nuclear energy amounts the 17% of the electricity production consumed in the world. Currently, there are 436 nuclear reactors with a total net installed capacity of 370.394 GWe. Furthermore, at the end of 2009, 55 new reactors are in a construction phase in countries as France, Finland, South Korea, Rusia, China or Bulgaria.
In 2008 the five countries with the world’s highest nuclear electricity generation capacity in percentage terms were: France (76,18%); Lituania (72,89%); Slovakia (56,42%); Belgium (53,76%) and Sweden (42,04%).
There are currently various trends in the world’s nuclear sector: the United States with its plant lifetime extension programme and the idea to construct new power plants; Finland with the construction of its fifth nuclear reactor; France with the construction of a new nuclear power plant and the international experimental fusion reactor (ITER); and the decision to construct new reactors in United Kingdom, United States and Asian countries such as China, India, Japan and Korea.
All the nuclear programmes in different countries, and all facilities, are under the supervision and control of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose headquarters are in Vienna (www.iaea.org).
A brief nuclear history
In the second half of the 1960’s, the United States launched the first nuclear programme aimed at electricity generation, although four years before the United Kingdom had inaugurated Calder Hall, the world’s first nuclear power plant. Shortly afterwards, other industrialised nations followed suit and undertook their own nuclear power plant construction and operation programmes. The motor driving the development of this energy source was economic stability, a strong growth in electricity demand and its promising economic expectations.
At the beginning of the 1970’s, the oil crisis provided the definitive drive for nuclear energy in the energy plans of many industrialised nations, such as Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan. Especially noteworthy was the emphasis placed on nuclear energy by France, which abandoned the graphite-gas reactors for American pressurised water technology. In turn other countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan and Korea prepared to initiate their nuclear programmes.
However, during the second half of the 1970’s there was a strong economic crisis that stabilised electricity demand. The investment costs of the nuclear power plants under construction soared and the anti-nuclear movement began to emerge, with its impact on public opinion. The combination of these factors led to a major slowing down of nuclear programmes, especially in those countries in which this energy source was most highly developed. |
