Nuclear Share Of Electricity
In 2000, six new NPPs with a total capacity of 3 056 MWe, went critical or were connected to the grid: three NPPs were added in India and one each in Pakistan, Brazil and the Czech Republic. One NPP was retired – the Chernobyl NPP unit 3 in Ukraine. During the last decade, the number of NPPs almost stagnated in North America and Western Europe, experienced a low growth in Eastern Europe and expanded only in East Asia, principally in China, the Republic of Korea and Japan. If this trend continues, nuclear power’s share of world electricity supply will decline, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2000, from the current 16.3% to about 9% by 2020, even though the total number of NPPs world-wide will be slightly increased or maintained almost at the same level. The IAEA’s projections also show similar results. Current and new additions in Asia and in countries with economies in transition roughly balance the NPPs being retired.

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