![]() Seven new reactors totaling 4,000 megawatts were connected to the grid-three in China and one each in India, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia-with less than 1,000 megawatts added through increasing, or “uprating,” existing nuclear plant capacities. ![]() Even in France, with a world-leading 77 percent of its electricity coming from nuclear power, newly elected President François Hollande has said he intends to reduce this share to roughly 50 percent by 2025.Īccording to IAEA data, 13 reactors with a combined 11,400 megawatts were permanently shut down in Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom in 2011. Later in 2011, Belgium announced plans to phase out the seven reactors that provide more than half of the country’s electricity. But in a June 2011 referendum, more than 90 percent of Italian voters chose to ban nuclear power. Italy, which had discontinued its nuclear program after the infamous 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine, had in 2010 decided to restart it. The government also announced that all five of the country’s reactors-which for years had provided some 40 percent of its electricity-will close permanently as their operating licenses expire over the next 22 years. Just before Germany’s phaseout decision, Switzerland abandoned plans for three new reactors that were going through the approval process. Nuclear power generated 18 percent of the country’s electricity in 2011, down from 24 percent in recent years and well below the peak in 1997 of 31 percent. And in May 2011, the government declared that Germany would phase out nuclear entirely by 2022. Within days of the disaster, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany’s seven oldest reactors, all built before 1980, would shut down immediately. ![]() Next to Japan, the most dramatic shift in nuclear energy policy following Fukushima occurred in Germany. Now that Tomari 3 is offline, all 44,200 megawatts of Japan’s nuclear capacity that are listed as “operational” by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are in fact idle with no set date for restart. Others were subsequently closed due to earthquake vulnerability or for regular inspection. ![]() When the quake and tsunami hit, 16 reactors had already been temporarily shut down for inspections or maintenance another 13 underwent emergency shutoffs, including the four Fukushima Daiichi reactors now permanently shut down. But nuclear power dropped to just 18 percent of Japan’s electricity over the course of 2011. Prior to the Fukushima crisis, Japan had 54 reactors providing close to 30 percent of its electricity, with plans to increase this share to more than 50 percent by 2030. But with the world’s fleet of reactors aging, and with new plants suffering construction delays and cost increases, it is possible that world nuclear electricity generation has peaked and begun a long-term decline. In other countries, nuclear plans are proceeding with caution. Some European countries have decided to phase out their nuclear programs entirely. And the disaster’s legacy has spread far beyond Japan. The March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown shattered public confidence in atomic energy, thus far making it politically impossible to restart any of the reactors taken offline. On May 5, 2012, Japan shut down its Tomari 3 nuclear reactor on the northern island of Hokkaido for inspection, marking the first time in over 40 years that the country had not a single nuclear power plant generating electricity. ![]()
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