The picture is mixed for nuclear power in the world´s higher income countries, which collectively account for 85% of the world´s nuclear-generated electricity. While some countries produced record amounts of nuclear electricity last year, nuclear´s share of overall electricity production dipped slightly.
The update comes from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA) based in Paris, France. The latest figures are reported in the NEA´s Nuclear Energy Data for 2008:
- Nuclear power plants provided 21.6% of the electricity generated in OECD countries, as compared to 22.9% in 2006. This was despite record production at nuclear power plants in Finland, Hungary and the United States, which did not offset reduced output in France, Germany and Japan and plant closures in the Slovak Republic and the United Kingdom. Total nuclear electricity production was 2172 TWh in 2007, about 3.6% less than the previous year.
- At the start of 2008, there were 346 nuclear units connected to the electricity grid in 17 of the OECD´s 30 member countries (Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States).
- Fourteen nuclear units representing a total capacity of 14.2 GWe are currently under construction in OECD countries: six are being built in the Republic of Korea, three in Japan, two in the Slovak Republic and one each in Finland, France and the United States.
- Firm commitments have been made for the construction of 13 more reactors, all in the OECD Pacific region. Once completed, the new units will add 31.2 GWe to OECD electricity grids.
- Twelve units are scheduled to be shut down before 2012: five in Germany, four in the United Kingdom, one in France, one in Japan and one in the Slovak Republic.