5 Largest Nuclear Reactor Power Producers in the World

Hello everyone, back again at porkaone. The high cost and technological sophistication to build a nuclear reactor make this nuclear-powered electricity producer only dominated by developed countries. There are only 441 nuclear reactors currently in existence worldwide and capable of supplying about 10% of global electricity demand.

Among these countries, there are five largest countries in the world, including two from Asia that produce and supply nuclear power. However, it is still rare for countries in the world to use nuclear reactors for power generation, this is as quoted from Power Technology.

The reason is because of the negative public perception and concern about the radioactive waste generated will be very dangerous and have a long-term bad impact. In fact, apart from these adverse effects, nuclear reactors actually have an advantage over coal or oil power plants, namely that they do not produce greenhouse gases directly.

5 Largest Nuclear Reactor Power Producers in the World

1. United States of America

The country, in 2019 used nuclear reactors to produce 843TWh which is 30% more than global nuclear energy production. America has a total installed nuclear capacity of 91.5GW obtained from 93 nuclear reactors spread across 30 states in the United States.

The US is actually more dependent on natural gas and coal for electricity generation than using nuclear power. Nuclear use is only 20% of the country's total electricity consumption.

Construction of two nuclear reactors that are part of the Vogtle project in the state of Georgia is currently underway, and is expected to be operational in 2022. Reactors that have expired, such as the two nuclear reactors at Indian Point 2 and Duane Arnold with a combined capacity of 1.5GW, were closed in 2020.

2. France

Approximately 70% of the electricity consumed from nuclear energy is produced by the French state. This consumption is the largest nuclear reactor electricity consumption in the world. But France has managed to lower its country's electricity production costs by concentrating its nuclear expertise. It is possible to generate 17% of electricity from waste from electric reactors. In 2020, France is recorded to have 56 operational reactors which when combined will produce 338.7TWh.

The French government has promised that by 2050 it will build even more reactors to decarbonize its power plants.

Simultaneously, France will also reduce to 50% the share of nuclear energy in its mix by 2035 and increase renewable generation. Two of France's oldest nuclear units, Fessenheim, were closed in 2020 due to environmental concerns.

3. China

China has the title as the most populous country in the world. This country is capable of producing 50.8GW of electricity from its nuclear reactors, making it the third largest country in producing nuclear energy in the world.

In 2019, 5% of China's electricity needs were obtained from 51 nuclear reactors. And that same year, China's total nuclear power production has reached 330TWh. Currently, the construction of 18 additional reactors is underway. This development is expected to supply 17.2GW of power to the state power system. The Chinese government is also planning to build 39 new nuclear reactors with an accumulative capacity of 43GW.

Last January 2021, Chinese engineers celebrated the start of operation of the country's first third-generation pressurized water reactor. The first reactor developed in China was designed to be significantly more efficient than its predecessor reactor, the new reactor was named Hualong One.

4. Japan

The country has 33 nuclear reactors in operation with a net capacity of 31.7GW. Two additional reactors, Ohma 1 and Shimane 3 with a net capacity of 2.6GW, are currently under construction.

Before the Fukushima plant was destroyed in March 2011, 30% of Japan's electricity needs came from nuclear energy and was ranked third on this list. But because of the incident, the Japanese government finally stopped all construction of nuclear plants for two years.

Then plant monitoring was taken over by the new national nuclear regulator. And introduce new checks and practices to prevent another disaster from happening.

5. Russia

Russia has a combined net capacity of 29.6GW from 38 reactors in operation. Simultaneously, a combined net capacity of 2.3GW will be generated by two additional reactors that are under construction and are part of the Kursk II project.

In 2019, 19.7% of the total electricity generated came from the production of 195.5TWh of Russian nuclear energy. Formerly the Soviet Union was one of the original pioneers of nuclear technology, modern Russia at that time was not as formed as it is today. These reactors designed by Soviet engineers were built in almost all of Eastern Europe, until today after becoming Russia, this country remains the world leader in fast neutron reactor technology.

Rosatom as the state-owned nuclear power company hopes that its Proryv project will be able to develop a closed nuclear fuel cycle, based on fast reactors for the purpose of implementing the industry on a larger scale.

So this article is about the 5 biggest countries producing nuclear reactor electricity in the world. Hopefully it's useful, if there's something you want to discuss, please discuss it in the comments column below. That is all and thank you.