Nuclear Energy

Table 1: Estimates of Total and Nuclear Electrical Generating Capacity cclxxiii
Country Group Total Generating Capacity,
GW
North America 1251 113.3
Western Europe 800 122.7
Eastern Europe and
Russia
471 47.6
Far East (incl. China) 1412 77.9
Rest of World 981 10.3
Total 4914 371.9
Nuclear Generating Capacity, GW
Let us now take a look at the changes taking place in the global nuclear power scenario over the
past few years, to see if indeed there is some kind of a nuclear renaissance taking place.
� In 2007, world nuclear electricity generation dropped by more than 50 TWh to 2608.2 TWh
(Terrawatthour = billion kwh). This decline of 2% over the previous year was the largest
decline in a single year since the first fission reactor was connected to the Soviet grid in
1954. The following year, in 2008, global nuclear generation lost another half percentage
point (over the 2007 level). cclxxiv The 2010 Edition of the IAEA report Energy, Electricity
and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period up to 2030 records yet more decline: global
nuclear energy generation in 2009 fell by another 1.5% over 2008 level to 2558.1 TWh. cclxxv
� Compared to the total global electricity generation from all sources, world nuclear energy
generation had fallen from 15.2% in 2006 to 14.2% in 2007 to 14% in 2008 to 13.8% in
2009; that it, it has fallen for the third consecutive year in 2009. cclxxvi
� Similarly, as we can see from the graph 2 below, ever since the first nuclear reactor came on-
line in 1954, till 1990 the number of reactors and the total generating capacity rapidly
increased. However, after that, the number of reactors have hovered around 430 and the
increase in total capacity has also slowed down, and is presently hovering around 360-370
GW.
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