Data feature: World nuclear power plant capacity 1991

At this point, the future of the nuclear power industry remains largely in doubt. The gloomy predictions about global warming have done little to convince politicians and the public of the benefits of nuclear power. Meanwhile, the setbacks to nuclear have continued apace: The United States has failed to take the expected lead in ordering new nuclear plants. And President-elect Bill Clinton does not consider nuclear a major part of his energy strategy. The situation looks equally bleak in other countries. Canada's biggest utility, Ontario Hydro, was forced under intense political pressure to defer its ambitious nuclear expansion program until after the year 2010. In Europe, the suspension of France's Superphenix fast-breeder reactor in June could stop progress on the technology indefinitely. And the Finnish parliament dropped plans for expansion of nuclear power from its national energy strategy. Developing and semi-industrialized countries, such as Brazil and Argentina, have shown little progress, taking upwards of twenty years to complete plants already under construction. Nuclear's problems seem always to hinge on economics. Nuclear has little chance of revival during the current global recession, especially in countries fighting for their long-term economic survival. That is why NUKEM believes nuclear power will not grow much in the CIS and Eastern Europe beyond the projects already in the advanced stages of construction. What's more, the longer countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Finland keep their nuclear expansion plans on hold, the harder it will be to get the political support to restart them. So far in 1992, only two nuclear plants, with a combined capacity of 1,520 MWe, have gone into commercial operation. One more 1,330 MWe reactor may start up by year's end. By then, NUKEM expects world nuclear plant capacity to stand at 330.3 GWe