November 20, 2008

Electricity from nuclear plants down in 21 countries

According to the study commissioned by the European Parliament's Green Party, the amount of electricity that comes from nuclear power has decreased over the last five years in most of the countries operating nuclear plants.

The decreases were found in 21 of the 31 countries with nuclear power stations and the number of nuclear reactors dropped by 5 to 439 since 2003. The research itself was carried out by two European experts on nuclear energy.

The study explained that since 1988, when the number of nuclear reactors in Europe peaked, aging nuclear plants have been closing and fewer new stations have been built due to strong competition from natural gas and other forms of renewable energy and an insufficient manufacturing capacity.

The study said that altogether around 16% of electricity generated worldwide comes from nuclear power. France had the highest amount of nuclear generated power in its electricity mix in 2006, 78.1% followed by Lithuania, Slovakia and Belgium, where the share was also higher than 50%. The US had the highest number of nuclear reactors at 104. They provided 19.4% of the country's electricity.

The EU's 27 nations are divided over nuclear power a technology that creates little CO2 but a lot of radioactive waste. France is the most vocal advocate of atomic energy, arguing it could play a major role in replacing coal or oil fired power plants to help meet the EU's target of generating a fifth of its energy from CO2 free power by 2020.