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Jürg Rohrer

Nuclear power consumption per capita by country

Who is using nuclear energy? – Nuclear energy consumption per capita by country

Nuclear power consumption per capita by country

This graph shows the nuclear power consumption per capita by country for the year 2003 in kg oil equivalents.

This graph will certainly change during the next 10 to 20 years because several countries decided not to replace retired nuclear power plants any more and to phase-out nuclear energy. In the European Union, 17 out of the 27 member countries do either have no nuclear power plants or have already decided to sooner or later stop using this technology (among them are Sweden and Germany). Switzerland is also quite unlikely to rebuild nuclear power plants since any new nuclear plant needed to get acceptance in a public vote.

 

Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons per country

Nuclear power by country

World-wide, there are currently 435 nuclear power plants in operation and 28 under construction (January 2007). The chart on the right hand side shows the number of nuclear power plants in operation by country.

For countries with nuclear weapons, the bar is red, for countries without nuclear weapons, the bar is blue.

Interesting findings:

  • 4 out of the 6 countries with most nuclear power plants do also have nuclear weapons
  • More than half of all nuclear power plants (55%) are located in countries who are known to have nuclear weapons
  • The 6 countries with most nuclear power plants own 97% of all nuclear weapons world-wide.

Therefore it appears to be quite doubtful that using nuclear power for civil purposes is independent from military applications. The graph above seems to rather indicate "the more nuclear power plants, the more likely nuclear weapons". Read on…

Prediction of energy consumption world-wide

Prediction of the world-wide energy consumtion by fuel type

According to the American Energy Information Administration (EIA) and to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world-wide energy consumption will on average continue to increase by 2% per year.

A yearly increase by 2% leads to a doubling of the energy consumption every 35 years. This means the world-wide energy consumption is predicted to be twice as high in the year 2040 compared to today (2007).

By far the highest increase in world-wide energy consumption is predicted to be from all three fossil fuels: oil, coal and natural gas (see graph)! The renewable energies are predicted to grow as well, but much less than fossil energies. Nuclear energy is predicted to grow relatively moderate.

We have a serious problem

It is only possible to mitigate global warming if the world-wide consumption of fossil fuels can be drastically reduced in the next 10 to 15 years. There is simply no room for a scenario as it is predicted by the International Energy Agency IEA.

It is also obvious that no combination of alternative technologies can replace the current usage of fossil fuels. There is simply not enough non-fossil fuel available for this. In order to mitigate global warming, we have to use the available energy much more efficiently. But this won't be enough either: We will have to change our behaviour to reduce our personal energy consumption. We must change our current live style and seriously strive for a sustainable living .

Read on for details and background…

 

Effects of global warming

There are two major effects of global warming:

Effects of global warming: Muir glacier retreat

 

  • Increase of temperature on the earth by about 3° to 5° C (34° to 41° Fahrenheit) by the year 2100.
  • Rise of sea levels by at least 25 meters (82 feet) by the year 2100.

More details about these effects of global warming :

Definition of spiritual growth – what is personal spiritual growth

There is no official and exact definition of spiritual growth. We – and many others – use personal spiritual growth as synonyms for other terms like e.g. personal spiritual development, to develop higher awareness or to develop higher consciousness.

With our understanding of spirituality , one can also define personal spiritual growth as way to integrate spirituality to a higher and higher degree in our daily live.Personal spiritual growth: Awareness or consciousness as a sphere of light around our body

Solar, not nuclear energy

Regarding "Pros and cons of nuclear power " (2007-01-09), it is surprising that anyone should be considering building new nuclear power plants in the US when there is a simple mature technology available that can deliver huge amounts of clean energy without any of the headaches of nuclear power.

I refer to 'concentrating solar power' (CSP), the technique of concentrating sunlight using mirrors to create heat, and then using the heat to raise steam and drive turbines and generators, just like a conventional power station. It is possible to store solar heat in melted salts so that electricity generation may continue through the night or on cloudy days. This technology has been generating electricity successfully in California since 1985 and half a million Californians currently get their electricity from this source. CSP plants are now being planned or built in many parts of the world.

Definition of sustainability – what is sustainable?

 

«Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.»

This is probably the most broadly accepted definition of sustainability developed in 1987, by the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission). Instead of sustainability, often terms like sustainable development, sustainable prosperity or sustainable genuine progress are used. They more or less all mean the same as defined above. Details can be found e.g. in Wikipedia .

Known and unknown unknowns

"There are no knowns. There are things we know that we know. There
are known unknowns – that is to say, there are things we now know we
don’t know but there are also unknown unknowns.

There are
things we do not know we don’t know. So when we do the best we can and
we pull all this information together, and we then say well that’s
basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known
knowns and the known unknowns. And each year we discocover a few more
of those unknown unknowns."

Pros and cons of nuclear power

Pros and cons of nuclear power plants

As a result of the current discussion how further global warming could be prevented or at least mitigated, the revival of nuclear power seems to be in everybody's – or at least in many politician's – mind. It it interesting to see that in many suggestions to mitigate global warming, the focus is put on the advantages of nuclear power generation, its disadvantages are rarely mentioned.

Below is a short summary of arguments for and against nuclear power plants.

 

 

Cause and effect for global warming

Almost 100% of the observed temperature increase over the last 50 years has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and ozone. Greenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect (see below). The largest contributing source of greenhouse gas is the burning of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dioxide.

Read on and see graphs about the greenhouse effect and global warming caused by the greenhouse effect.