Part Two of Two Parts (Please read Part One first)
Canada gets eighty nine gigawatt-hours from twenty reactors which represents about fifteen percent of its electricity. Most of the nuclear power in Canada comes from reactors located in Ontario because of anti-nuclear resistance in other provinces. There are no current plans for major nuclear power expansion in Canada despite the fact that they are a leading exporter of nuclear technology.
China is generating about ninety two and a half gigawatt-hours with seventeen reactors which supply two percent of its electricity. The horrible pollution in China from reliance on coal fired power plants is a very strong incentive to expand nuclear power generation. They look forward to constructing thirteen power reactors by about 2020 which will raise the percentage of nuclear power to six percent. China has acquired nuclear technology for other countries such as Russia and France, but it is quickly developing its own domestic nuclear industry and marketing reactors to other countries.
Germany generates ninety four gigawatt-hours with nine reactors that supply sixteen percent of its electricity. Germany has decided to abandon nuclear power generation completely and is closing all its reactors by 2022. The disaster at Fukushima in 2011 was a major factor in the decision.
South Korea generates one hundred forty three and a half gigawatt-hours of nuclear power with twenty three reactors. This accounts for about thirty percent of power generation in S.K. There are plans to bring five more reactors online by 2021 and S.K. is committed to export of nuclear reactors and technology to other countries.
Russia has thirty three reactors which generate about one hundred sixty six gigawatt-hours or about eighteen percent of their electricity. Russia is very aggressive about the future of nuclear power and has a long range plan to get half of their electricity from nuclear generation by 2050. They are planning to build twenty eight new reactors in order to achieve that goal. Russia is also committed to the export of nuclear power reactors. Their model for foreign sales is to build, operate, fuel and remove waste for their clients.
France generates four hundred seven and one half gigawatt-hours of electricity with fifty eight reactors. This represents about seventy five percent of the electricity generated in France. France is also an exporter of electricity to other European nations. The election of the most recent French President signaled a shift of policy in France away from nuclear power. The new President ran on a promise to reduce France's reliance on nuclear power generation by one third. France is a leader in development of and the export of nuclear technology.
The United States currently generates over seven hundred and seventy gigawatt-hours of electricity from a fleet of a hundred nuclear reactors. This supplies nineteen percent of the electricity for the U.S. Most of the reactor construction in the U.S. occured before 1975. The Three Mile Island accident in 1979 ended nuclear expansion in the U.S. Recently, interest in nuclear has reawakened as five new reactors with a capacity of seven gigawatt-hours are now under construction. However, this only represent a one percent expansion of current nuclear power generation.
Despite the optimistic plans of some nations to expand their use of nuclear power and export reactors to developing nations, the sensitivity of the public, investors and politicians to nuclear disasters and their aftermath should serve as a warning to nuclear enthusiasts. The push to build many new reactors in a short period and the construction of reactors in developing nations with corrupt governments makes another major accident almost inevitable in the next ten to twenty years. Such an accident may quash hopes for a global "nuclear renaissance."
Global Nuclear Power Plants:
