Nuclear Power Worldwide

[Héctor]

Nuclear power´s share of worldwide electricity production rose from less than 1 percent in 1960 to 16 percent in 1986, and that percentage has held essentially constant in the 21 years since 1986. Nuclear electricity generation has grown steadily at the same pace as overall global electricity generation. At the close of 2006, nuclear provided about 15 percent of total electricity worldwide (...) There were 435 operating nuclear reactors around the world, and 29 more were under construction. The US had the most with 103 operating units. France was next with 59. Japan followed with 55, plus one more under construction, and Russia had 31 operating, and seven more under construction. Of the 30 countries with nuclear power, the percentage of electricity supplied by nuclear ranged widely: from a high of 78 percent in France; to 54 percent in Belgium; 39 percent in Republic of Korea; 37 percent in Switzerland; 30 percent in Japan; 19 percent in the USA; 16 percent in Russia; 4 percent in South Africa; and 2 percent in China. Present nuclear power plant expansion is centred in Asia: 15 of the 29 units under construction at the end of 2006 were in Asia. And 26 of the last 36 reactors to have been connected to the grid were in Asia. India currently gets less than 3% of its electricity from nuclear, but at the end of 2006 it had one-quarter of the nuclear construction - 7 of the world´s 29 reactors that were under construction.

Full report in Nuclear Power Worldwide: Status and Outlook. A Report from the IAEA

[Jhon]

I don't think so the recently report of new pakistani reactor which is in punjab province is totally for the new atomic bombs not for electricity..

[Héctor]

Myth 5: Nuclear fuel can be diverted to make nuclear weapons

Fact: Nuclear weapons are no longer inextricably linked to nuclear power plants. Centrifuge technology now allows nations to enrich uranium without first constructing a nuclear reactor. The closed fuel cycle model outlined by the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership—in which stable democracies effectively lease nuclear fuel to participating countries and take it back once used—can help ensure enriched uranium is used for civilian purposes only. Over the past 20 years, one of the simplest tools—the machete—has been used to kill more than a million people in Africa, far more than were killed in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings combined. Yet no one suggests banning machetes, as they are valuable tools for farmers in developing countries. The only practical approach to the issue of nuclear weapons proliferation is to put it higher on the international agenda and to use diplomacy and, where necessary, force to prevent countries or terrorists from using nuclear materials for destructive ends. New technologies, such as the reprocessing system recently introduced in Japan (in which the plutonium is never separated from the uranium) can make it much more difficult to manufacture weapons using civilian materials.

Read Nuclear Re-Think by Patrick Moore

[Héctor]

Another myths:

Myth 1: Nuclear energy is expensive
Fact: Nuclear energy is one of the least expensive energy sources. In 2004, the average cost of producing nuclear energy in the United States was less than two cents per kilowatt-hour, comparable with coal and hydroelectric. Advances in technology will bring the cost down even further in the future.

Myth 2: Nuclear plants are not safe
Fact: While Three Mile Island was a success story, the 1986 accident at Chernobyl was not. But Chernobyl was an accident waiting to happen. This early model of Soviet reactor had no containment vessel, was an inherently bad design and its operators literally blew it up. The multi-agency UN Chernobyl Forum reported last year that only 56 deaths could be directly attributed to the accident, most from radiation or burns suffered while fighting the fire. Tragic as those deaths were, they pale in comparison to the more than 5,000 deaths in coal mine accidents worldwide every year. Or the 1.2 million people who die in automobile accidents annually. No one has died of a radiation-related accident in the history of the US civilian nuclear reactor program. (Sadly, hundreds of uranium mine workers did die from radiation exposure underground in the early years of that industry. This was long ago corrected).

Myth 3: Nuclear waste will be dangerous for thousands of years
Fact: Within 40 years, used fuel has less than one-thousandth of the radioactivity it had when it was removed from the reactor. And it is incorrect to call it waste, because 95% of the potential energy is still contained in the used fuel after the first cycle. Now that the United States has removed the ban on recycling used fuel, it will be possible to use that energy and to greatly reduce the amount of waste that needs treatment and disposal. Last month, Japan joined France, Britain and Russia in the nuclear-fuel-recycling business.

Myth 4: Nuclear reactors are vulnerable to terrorist attack
Fact: The five-feet-thick reinforced concrete containment vessel protects the contents from the outside as well as the inside. And even if a jumbo jet did crash into a reactor and breach the containment, the reactor would not explode. There are many types of facilities that are far more vulnerable, including liquid natural gas plants, chemical plants and numerous political targets.

Nuclear Re-Think by Patrick Moore

[Héctor]

Substitute Friday prayers leader of Tehran Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani said on Friday that production of nuclear bomb is religiously forbidden. "Islam bans shedding blood of nations; on the same ground, production of nuclear bomb and even thinking on its production are forbidden from Islamic point of view," said Ayatollah Kashani in his weekly Friday prayers sermon at Tehran University campus. Ayatollah Kashani said that in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, as the highest authority having the power of issuing decrees and having the first say in decision makings and politics, has explicitly banned production and use of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

In Ayat. Kashani: N-bomb production religiously forbidden