In 2011, following the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, Germany set out to close its seventeen nuclear reactors by 2022. Yet between 2011 and 2019, China added thirty-four new nuclear reactors, double the number of reactors that have closed in Germany. A few nuclear reactors have closed in the United States because of the difficulty of competing against inexpensive natural gas, but close to a hundred reactors are operating, providing 20 percent of U.S. electricity. As for natural gas, the growth of its contribution to total world energy in 2018 was more than double that of renewables.
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