Nuclear power plants, world-wide

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On December 20, 1951, at the Experimental Breeder Reactor EBR-I in Arco, Idaho, USA, for the first time electricity - illuminating four light bulbs - was produced by nuclear energy. EBR-I was not designed to produce electricity but to validate the breeder reactor concept.

First electricity production by nuclear energy
Experimental Breeder Reactor EBR-I, 20 Dec.1951, Arco, Idaho, USA

On June 26, 1954, at Obninsk, Russia, the nuclear power plant APS-1 with a net electrical output of 5 MW was connected to the power grid, the world's first nuclear power plant that generated electricity for commercial use. On August 27, 1956 the first commercial nuclear power plant, Calder Hall 1, Eng-land, with a net electrical output of 50 MW was connected to the national grid.

As of 30 June 2009 in 31 countries 436 nuclear power plant units with an installed electric net capacity of about 370 GW are in operation and 48 plants with an installed capacity of 42 GW are in 15 countries under construction.

As of end 2007 the total electricity production since 1951 amounts to 59,450 billion kWh. The cumulative operating experience amounted to 12,750 years by the end of 2007.

Country	In operation		Under construction
	Number	Electr. net output MW	Number	Electr. net output MW
Argentina	2	935	1	692
Armenia	1	376	-	-
Belgium	7	5,824	-	-
Brazil	2	1,766	-	-
Bulgaria	2	1,906	2	1,906
Canada	18	12,577	-	-
China	11	8,438	13	12,220
Czech Republic	6	3,634	-	-
Finland	4	2,696	1	1,600
France	59	63,260	1	1,600
Germany	17	20,470	-	-
Hungary	4	1,859	-	-
India	17	3,782	6	2,910
Iran	-	-	1	915
Japan	53	45,957	2	2,191
Korea, Republic	20	17,647	5	5,180
Lithuinia	1	1,185	-	-
Mexico	2	1,300	-	-
Netherlands	1	482	-	-
Pakistan	2	425	1	300
Romania	2	1,300	-	-
Russian Federation	31	21,743	8	5,809
Slovakian Republic	4	1,711	2	810
Slovenia	1	666	-	-
South Africa	2	1,800	-	-
Spain	8	7,450	-	-
Sweden	10	8,958	-	-
Switzerland	5	3,238	-	-
Taiwan	6	4,949	2	2,600
Ukraine	15	13,107	2	1,900
United Kingdom	19	10,097	-	-
USA	104	100,683	1	1,165
Total	436	370,221	48	41,798

Nuclear power plants world-wide, in operation and under construction, as of June 2009

Number of reactors in operation, worldwide, February 2009 (IAEA, modified)

Nuclear power plants under construction, June 2009 (IAEA 2009, modified)

Nuclear share in electricity generation, 2008 (IAEA 2009, modified)

Number of nuclear reactors worldwide by age as of March 2009 (IAEA 2009)

Nuclear Power Plants, energy availability factor 1991 - 2008 (IAEA 2009)

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