Nuclear Power Today (and Tomorrow)

Contribution to Energy Usage

According to the BP Statistical Review of 2007, nuclear contributed 10.109 exajoules of electricity which equalled 14.8% of the World's electricity, slightly less than hydro (16%) while fossil fuels made up the bulk at 66.5% [Storm table A1]. As a contribution to World energy supply, the situation is confused as BP includes traded fuels only, ignoring biomass and smaller (modern) renewables. They also convert the energy contributions into primary energy equivalents by multiplying nuclear and hydroelectricity by 2.6, while renewables are left in their original values. This implies that one joule of electricity from nuclear is worth two and a half that from a wind turbine while is clearly nonsense. One joule of electricity will do so much work, wherever it comes from.

The chart right shows the contributions of the various energy sources as actually generated energy units. This shows that nuclear contributes only a very small amount to the World's energy usage, an important factor for those who think nuclear power can make a big difference to global warming. It also shows just how much nuclear would have to expand if we wanted (and if it was possible) to replace fossil fuels with nuclear.

The World's Nuclear Power Stations

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