World Energy Outlook 2006

Table 13.2: The Ten Largest Nuclear Operators in the World, 2005
Company Country Installed Share of nuclear
capacity in total
(GW) company
capacity
Electricité de France (EDF)* France 65.8 50%
Rosenergoatom Russia 21.7 100%
Exelon United States 17.4 33%
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Republic 16.8 97%
Power (KHNP) of Korea
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) Japan 16.8 28%
NNEGC Energoatom Ukraine 13.1 100%
E.ON** Germany 11.1 21%
British Energy United Kingdom 9.6 83%
Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) Japan 9.3 25%
Entergy United States 9.1 31%
* Figures based on total capacity in France and other countries.
** Figures include partial ownership of reactors in Sweden (2.6 GW).
Source: Company data.
Historical Development
The development of commercial nuclear power plants started over half a century
ago. Construction of nuclear power plants accelerated after the first oil shock and
reached its historical peak in the 1980s (Figure 13.2). About 80% of the current
nuclear capacity in the world was built in just two decades, before electricity market
deregulation was launched. After the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 in the
United States, there were significant delays in the construction of the nuclear power
plants that were being built at the time of the accident. There were no nuclear plant
orders in the United States after that date and many plans to build new reactors
there were cancelled. Following the Chernobyl accident in 1986, several countries
imposed restrictions on existing and/or new nuclear power plants.
The liberalisation of gas and electricity markets in the OECD during the
1990s, when natural gas prices were low and were expected to remain low, and
before carbon-dioxide emissions became a major policy issue, made investment
in new nuclear power plants less competitive than investment in the
alternatives, particularly gas-fired combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs).
Moreover, many countries had excess capacity in that period as a result of
overbuild in the previous decade. The economic collapse of the transition
348 World Energy Outlook 2006 - FOCUS ON KEY TOPICS
© OECD/IEA, 2007