Nuclear power plants, which produce electricity with almost zero greenhouse gas or carbon emissions at stable and competitive costs, are operating in more than thirty countries throughout the world. According to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Reference Data Series No. 1 2015 Edition, in 2014, 438 nuclear power reactors with the total installed capacity of 376 GWe produced about 2410 TWh of electricity representing 11.1% of the total electricity produced in the world from all energy sources. Some countries in Europe (e.g., France, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Belgium, and Sweden) produced more than 40% of their electricity from nuclear. The United States of America (USA) produced about 800 TWh of electricity, representing 19.5% of total U.S. electricity production, from its 99 nuclear reactors. This represented over 60% of electricity produced from low carbon-emission sources including hydro, solar and wind. Percentage of electricity from nuclear is also increasing in Asia, particularly in China, Korea and India. Thus nuclear power constitutes an element of the solution to global warming and a means of delivering electricity to both developed and emerging countries.
