United Kingdom (UK): GVA by the nuclear energy industry 2010-2013
The United Kingdom has a long association with nuclear energy, opening world's first industrial scale nuclear power station in 1956, at Sellafield in Cumbria. While generally declining, energy consumed from nuclear sources in the United Kingdom still amounted to 15.9 million metric tons of oil equivalent in 2015. This is less than it was in 1998, but still a marked increase from the 11.9 million metric tons of oil equivalent seen in 2008. Of all the methods used to generate electricity in the United Kingdom in 2015, nuclear generated the third highest amount of electricity, at 70.34 terawatt hours compared with close to 100 terawatt hours for gas, and approximately 76 terawatt hours for coal.
Due to the inherent risks nuclear energy carries, the merits of its use as a source of energy is generally a topic of strong conversation. In 2016, the Department of Energy and Climate Change's tracking survey found that 43 percent of respondents agreed that nuclear energy provides a reliable source of affordable energy, compared with just 16 percent that disagreed to some extent.