THORIUM AS AN ENERGY SOURCE - Opportunities for Norway ...

Thorium as an Energy Source - Opportunities for Norway
2.5 Status of Nuclear Energy
Since 1954 when the first nuclear power plant was producing electricity for a power grid (Obninsk
Nuclear Power Plant, USSR) the electricity production from nuclear has continuously been
increased. Nuclear energy uses a controlled fission reaction to generate heat. In nuclear power
reactors the heat produces steam that drives conventional turbines and generates electricity (see
Appendix A: Introduction to Nuclear Energy). Except for the processes used to generate the
steam, nuclear power plants are similar to conventional coal-fired generation plants. As of August
2007 there are 439 reactor units in operation in the world contributing to about 16 % of the
world’s electricity production. The majority of the reactors are located in the USA (104 units),
France (59 units), Japan (55 units) and Russia (31 units). See also [4].
Figure 2.7 gives an overview of the countries having nuclear reactors in operation and the
number of units in the respective countries. In addition to the existing reactors there are 31 units
under construction, mainly located in Russia (7 units), India (6 units) and China (5 units).
Of the Nordic countries, only Finland and Sweden have nuclear power plants for electricity
production. Sweden has 10 units producing yearly about 65 TWh which corresponds to about 50 %
of the Swedish electricity production. There are 4 units in Finland producing about 22 TWh
corresponding to about 27 % of the electricity production. In addition, one power plant is under
construction in Finland and will come into commercial operation in 2011.
Figure 2.7: Numbers of Reactors in Operation Worldwide (as of August 8, 2007)
(Source: IAEA Power Reactor Information System (PRIS))
Today, most of the reactors in the world are more than 20 years old (~70 %), while as much as
about 23 % are more than 30 years old. In 2030 more than 90 % of the reactors will be older than
30 years and about 80 % of the reactors will be older than 40 years (if no new units are built) and
as a consequence of aging about 150 reactors will be shutdown at this time. The age distribution
of operating reactors is shown in Figure 2.8.
The construction of a nuclear power plant including licensing and environmental assessments
takes between 7 and 10 years. The planned lifetime of new reactors today is usually 60 years.
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