Nuclear Current Scenario

World is still generating electricity from nuclear power approximately at 2,645.50 terawatt-hour. 1 terawatt is equivalent to 1 million megawatt while 1 megawatt is equivalent to 1 million watt.

Although the annual power generation by renewable energy is increasing annually comparing to nuclear power, however we can still see that newer nuclear plant are still in construction as we discussed earlier in Which Countries is Constructing New Nuclear Reactors Today?.

In 2010, the worldwide cumulated installed capacity of renewable energy is approximately 381 GW comparing to 375GW of the nuclear power. The total investment in renewable energy technologies was estimated at USD243 billion in 2010.

There are approximately 437 nuclear reactors operating in the world today where 143 of the reactors are in the European Union. Below is the list of countries and power generated from the total of 28 countries. Although some inaccuracies might be presented here, readers who have more information on that please do not hesitate to tell us for updating the list.

No	Countries	Power Generation
1	United States	821.1 terawatt-hours
2	France	437 terawatt-hours
3	Japan	314.9 terawatt-hours
4	Germany	164.8 terawatt-hours
5	Russia	141.6 terawatt-hours
6	South Korea	119.1 terawatt-hours
7	United Kingdom	88 terawatt-hours
8	Ukraine	78 terawatt-hours
9	Canada	75.2 terawatt-hours
10	Sweden	68.8 terawatt-hours
11	Spain	63 terawatt-hours
12	Taiwan	39.6 terawatt-hours
13	Switzerland	27.2 terawatt-hours
14	China	25.9 terawatt-hours
15	Finland	22.4 terawatt-hours
16	Bulgaria	20.2 terawatt-hours
17	India	19.4 terawatt-hours
18	Czech Republic	18.7 terawatt-hours
19	Slovakia	18.1 terawatt-hours
20	Brazil	15.1 terawatt-hours
21	Lithuania	14.1 terawatt-hours
22	Hungary	14 terawatt-hours
23	South Africa	12.6 terawatt-hours
24	Mexico	9.8 terawatt-hours
25	Argentina	5.8 terawatt-hours
26	Romania	5.5 terawatt-hours
27	Netherlands	3.9 terawatt-hours
28	Pakistan	1.7 terawatt-hours
	Total	2,645.5 terawatt-hours

 Weighted average      94.5 terawatt-hours

 Fukushima and Chernobyl

The accident scenario in Fukushima and Chernobyl was identical and almost similar. If we follow the event carefully by analysing these two scenarios is like you watch the same drama with alteration on filming locations and language while the script of the drama is retained.

No doubt, that we don’t want this drama to be translated again in other languages. What had happened in Fukushima and Chernobyl are more than enough for us to learn.

Chernobyl Affects until Today

In October 2009, the Council of Ministers of the European Union decided to extend by at least 10 years the monitoring system for potentially contaminated food from the Chernobyl disaster. This was added after they found that the contamination may still exist.

More than 150,000 sheep that were raised in the United Kingdom, on contaminated grasses remain under slaughter restriction. The sheep had to be transferred to clean fields for few months awaiting the radioactivity levels in the meat drop below legal limits.

In 2006, 18 Norwegian municipalities newly controlled the raising of sheep in their regions. This decision was made after the meat was found to be polluted at seven times above the EU limits. In Germany, radioactive mushrooms still lead to the ban until now.

What Fukushima will create for us still remains uncertain. Looking to what Chernobyl has done to us; make us worry when these nuclear plants would stop their operations.