United States Still No. 1 For Nuclear Energy

The United States still leads the way in cumulative installed nuclear capacity by some distance. By the end of 2012, the United States had 101,465 megawatts of installed nuclear capacity. This accounted for 18.98 percent of electricity generated throughout the country.

France comes second on the nuclear energy scale with a cumulative capacity of 63,130 megawatts. The importance of nuclear power plants to the French energy infrastructure is well known with nuclear energy generation accounting for a massive 77.7 percent of the country’s electricity in 2011.

Even though Japan comes third on the list, the country’s nuclear energy aspirations are clouded in doubt in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Russia and South Korea round off the top five with 23,643 and 20,671 megawatts of nuclear power respectively.

In Russia’s case, nuclear power plants accounted for 17.6 percent of electricity generation. South Korean nuclear plants provided 34.6 percent of the country’s electricity in 2011