nuclear-news

How nuclear power is going out of style – charts from Vox

The rise and fall of nuclear power, in 6 charts, Vox  by Brad Plumer on August 1, 2014,  Nuclear power is slowly going out of style. Back in 1996, atomic energy supplied 17.6 percent of the world’s electricity. Today that’s down to just 10.8 percent — and it could drop even further in the years ahead. That’s according to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2014, which charts the rise and fall of nuclear power over time.

What’s more, nuclear power has been eclipsed by other energy sources — particularly coal and natural gas. Back in 1996, nuclear power provided 17.6 percent of the world’s electricity. Today, that’s down to around 10.8 percent………

The United States has also seen the early retirement of 5 nuclear reactors since 2012 — in Florida, Wisconsin, Vermont, and two in California. Some of those reactors were simply too pricey to keep open in the face of rising maintenance costs and competition from cheap natural gas and wind power………

The chart above [in original article] shows the number of “reactors under construction” worldwide. The number has grown since 2005 — and reached 67 in 2014. That’s way below the peak in the 1970s and 1980s.

It’s also worth noting that this number can mask many of the difficulties in building new reactors. Eight of those reactors have been “under construction” for more than 20 years — including the US Watts Bar Unit 2project in Tennessee, which began in 1972, was stalled for years and then restarted recently, missed a deadline in 2012, and is hoping to get connected to the grid by 2015.

All told, the report notes that 49 of those reactors under construction have met with significant delays, ranging from several months to several years. Nuclear reactors are expensive and take a long time to build. They can face all sorts of obstacles in the meantime — from cost overruns to complex licensing processes to regulatory hurdles to popular opposition (the latter recently blocked construction of two reactors in Taiwan).

“Past experience shows that simply having an order for a reactor, or even having a nuclear plant at an advanced stage of construction, is no guarantee for grid connection and power production,” the report notes….http://www.vox.com/2014/8/1/5958943/nuclear-power-rise-fall-six-charts

August 2, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general