The role of nuclear power in the world

Today, nuclear power plants are operated in 31 countries, since the Fukushima event 2011 five newcomer countries have additionally started to build nuclear units, namely the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Bangladesh, Turkey and Egypt. In the same time, only Germany has decided to phase out nuclear (until 2022) at about half of the technical lifetime of 60 years of the plants, whereas originally comparable decisions in Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, South Korea and Sweden have been continuously ex-tended or reversed. We estimate the associated costs for Germany in the range of 200 G€. Furthermore, several other countries follow long-term policies to embark on nuclear programmes, whereas at least 17 of the 31 'nuclear' countries have declared to expand their nuclear share, mostly for climate protection reasons, but also for energy independence, security of supply or value of domestic investment. New construction has shifted from America and Europe to Russia and East Asia, with completion of a new unit on a worldwide scale about every six to eight weeks.