Through nuclear power about 16% of the global electricity is produced, above all in industrialized countries. In 2000 there were ten countries with the highest use of nuclear power:
* France, 76.4%
* Lithuania, 73.7 %
* Belgium, 56.8%
* Slovak Republic, 53.4%
* Ukraine, 47.3%
* Bulgaria, 45%
* Hungary, 42.2%
* Republic of Korea, 40.7%
* Sweden, 39%
* Switzerland, 38.2%

http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/publications/reports/ser/uranium/uranium.asp

• The first commercial nuclear power stations started operation in the 1950s.
• There are now some 440 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 31 countries, with over 364,000 MWe of total capacity.
• They supply 16% of the world's electricity, as base-load power, and their efficiency is increasing.
• 56 countries operate a total of 284 research reactors reactors and a further 220 reactors power ships and submarines.

How natural?
Uranium is a natural part of many rocks and is barely radioactive - very much less so than many of the other elements usually found with it. However, it provides the main heat sources inside the Earth, causing convection and continental drift.

The first nuclear reactors started up and operated naturally about 2000 million years ago, in a uranium ore body, in west Africa¹.


How sufficient and sustainable?
Uranium supplies, using currently proven but not yet widely used reactor technology, are sufficient for hundreds of years, even at much increased levels of use.

When uranium is used to generate electricity it produces no pollution or greenhouse gases.


How significant?
Nuclear energy provides 16 per cent of world electricity (24 per cent in developed countries). Today there is as much electricity generated by nuclear power as from all sources worldwide in 1961 (2525 billion kWh in 2003). Now, 11,500 reactor years of operation.

France gets over 75 per cent of its electricty from nuclear power. It is the world's largest electricity exporter.

There are some 440 nuclear reactors in 31 countries, 363 Gwe, 2525 TWh I 2002. 56 countries operate more than 280 research reactors. Over 200 are used for naval propulsion.

A 1,000 Mwe reactor producing 7 TWh per year supplies 780,000 people (@ 9,000 kWh each).


What potential?
To produce all today's base load power² worldwide would require about 1,700 nuclear reactors. Double this in 2030!

Nuclear energy is widely considered the most promising means of making hydrogen, initially by electrolysis, but later by thermochemical means.

If in 2050 nuclear reactors also produce most of the world's hydrogen which by then is the main transport fuel, consider over 8,000 reactors for electricity, plus 1,300 units for the hydrogen: say 9,500 total³ worldwide.


¹ Due to natural changes in the uranium, this can no longer happen.
² Assuming base load 75 per cent of total, and using 1,000 Mwe units.
³ 1,000 Mwe units.



Greenhouse significance?
Nuclear energy emits no carbon dioxide, and worldwide it avoids the emission of about 2.5 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year (relative to coal). Other electricity generation emits over 7 billion tonnes per year⁵. Every 22 tonnes of uranium (26 tonnes U₃O₈) used for generating electricity saves about one million tonnes of CO2 relative to coal6.

A carbon value or tax of $37 per tonne C on black coal or $29 per tonne C on brown coal would lift electricity generation costs from those sources by one cent per kWh. (= taxes of $10/t CO2).

Safety?
Nuclear power has an excellent and arguably unmatched safety record, considering 11,500 reactor years of nuclear power generation. Some early Russian reactors remain a concern.


http://www.heathgateresources.com.au/repositories/files/URANIUM%20AND%20NUCLEAR%20ENGERY%20FACTSHEET.doc