CONSULTING

There were three exceptions in 2015 that peaked their respective nuclear share in power
generation:
• China exceeded 2014 maximum of 2.4 percent, to reach 3.0 percent. The 0.6 percentage-point
increase was achieved with a 30 percent higher nuclear power output in 2015.
• Mexico increased its nuclear share by 1.2 percentage points to reach 6.8 percent, after
completing extensive uprating of its two nuclear reactors.
• Ukraine increased its 2004 record by 5.4 percentage points to 56.5 percent. However, overall
national power generation fell by 13.6 percent. So the higher share was achieved with an even
slightly lower (–0.9 percent) nuclear power output.
In addition, Russia repeated its historic maximum of the previous year of 18.6 percent.
Operation, Power Generation, Age Distribution
Since the first nuclear power reactor was connected to the Soviet power grid at Obninsk on
27 June 1954, there have been two major waves of startups. The first peaked in 1974, with 26 grid
connections in that year. The second reached a historic maximum in 1984 and 1985, just before the
Chernobyl accident, reaching 33 grid connections in each year. By the end of the 1980s, the
uninterrupted net increase of operating units had ceased, and in 1990 for the first time the number
of reactor shutdowns outweighed the number of startups. The 1991–2000 decade showed far more
startups than shutdowns (52/29), while in the decade 2001–2010, startups did not match
shutdowns (32/35). Furthermore, after 2000, it took a whole decade to connect as many units as
in a single year in the middle of the 1980s. Between 2011 and-2015, the startup of 29 reactors—of
which 18, or close to two thirds, in China—did not make up for the shutdown of 34 units over the
same period, largely as a result of the events in Fukushima. (See Figure 4).
In 2015, ten reactors started up, more than in any year since 1990. However, this is again the result
of the “China Effect”, as the country contributed eight out of the ten reactor startups (see Figure 5),
while one each was commissioned in Russia (Beloyarsk-4 after 31 years of construction) and South
Korea (Shin-Wolsong-2 after 6.5 years of construction). In 1990, five countries shared the startups:
Canada (2), France (3), Japan (2), Russia (1) and U.S. (2).
Two reactors were closed in 2015, Grafenrheinfeld in Germany and Wylfa-1 in the United Kingdom.
Doel-1 in Belgium was shut down in February 2015, after its license had expired, but in June 2015,
the Belgian Parliament voted a 10-year lifetime extension and the reactor was restarted on 30
December 2015. 20
The IAEA in its online database Power Reactor Information System (PRIS), in addition to the
closures in Germany and the U.K., accounts for five shutdowns in Japan. As WNISR considers
shutdowns from the moment of grid disconnection—and not from the moment of the industrial,
political or economic decision—and the units have not generated power for several years, in WNISR
statistics, they are closed in the year of the latest power generation. Two units have not produced
any electricity since 2010, the other three were taken off the grid following the 3/11 disaster.
20 On 18 June 2015, the Belgian Parliament voted legislation to extend the lifetime of Doel-1 and -2 by ten
years. As the Doel-2 license had not yet expired, its operation was not interrupted. See also section on
Belgium in Annex 1.
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 22 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016