Nuclear Power - The Countries that use Nuclear Energy Power Plants, Statistics, and Facts

Nuclear Power - The Countries that use Nuclear Energy Power Plants, Statistics, and Facts

Countries that Use Nuclear Energy Power Plants

Generating electricity from nuclear energy causes little pollution when compared to the pollution caused when the same amount of electricity is generated using thermal energy or other non-renewable energy resources. Even with such an advantage, it is not popular among the common people because the advantage comes at a huge cost. Disposing of the nuclear waste is very difficult and needs to be done after a lot of planning by the experts. The radioactive waste takes years to be no longer hazardous. In addition there is a risk of a nuclear accident like the one at Chernobyl. In spite of that, with the help of modern technology many countries use nuclear power plants to generate electricity and the number of nuclear power plants is increasing every year. Let us look look at some statistics that throw more light on the countries that use nuclear energy power plants.

Image Source - Wikipedia

Top 10 Countries that use Nuclear Energy Power Plants in Terms of Power Generated in Megawatts

The energy produced by nuclear energy power plants is measured in megawatts. The United States tops the list with more than 101 megawatts of power produced. This is roughly one-fourth of the total nuclear energy produced in the world. France follows at a far second with energy output of 63 megawatts. Japan takes the third place followed by Russia and Germany, which completes the list of the top five countries that produce electricity from nuclear energy power plants.

The Top 10 Countries that use Nuclear Energy Power Plants in Terms of Megawatts of Energy

  1. United States of America

  2. France

  1. Japan

  2. Russia

  3. Germany

  4. South Korea

  5. Ukraine

  1. Canada

  2. United Kingdom

  3. Sweden

Top 10 Countries that use Nuclear Energy Power Plants in Terms of Percentage of Electricity Generated from Nuclear Energy

Although the United States ranks first in the amount of energy produced (in megawatts) from nuclear power plants, it is France that leads the pack when the percentage of electricity generated from nuclear energy is concerned. France generates more than 76% of its total electricity from nuclear energy. The U.S. comes far behind at 16th as only 19.7% of the total electricity produced is produced from nuclear energy. 14% of electricity produced in the world is generated from nuclear energy. Surprisingly smaller countries like Slovakia, Belgium, Ukraine and Armenia complete the top five list. All these countries generate an average of more than 50% of the total electricity generated from nuclear energy.

The Top 10 Countries that Use Nuclear Energy Power Plants in Terms of Percentage of Electricity Generated from Nuclear Energy

  1. France - 76.2%

  2. Slovakia - 56.4%

  3. Belgium - 53.8%

  4. Ukraine - 47.4%

  5. Armenia - 43.5%

  1. Sweden - 42%

  2. Slovenia and Croatia share the same place - 41.7%

  3. Switzerland - 39.2%

  4. Hungary - 37.2%

  5. South Korea - 35.6%

The Future of Nuclear Energy

The future of generation energy from nuclear energy looks strong as countries like China, Russia, South Korea, and India have 24, 10, 6 and 4 nuclear power plants under construction. Many more countries are planning to build one and many have already built and are undergoing final checks before the nuclear energy power plants are up and running. Until there is enormous progress in generating power from renewable energy resources like solar power, wind power, tidal energy, etc., power generation from nuclear energy will be more popular than power generation using other conventional methods.

Links for Further Reading:

  1. Wikipedia

  2. Wisegeek

  3. worldnuclear.org