2006 nuclear power world report

At the turn of 2006/2007, 437 nuclear power plants were available for energy supply, or were being commissioned, in 31 countries of the world. This is seven plants less than at the turn of 2005/2006. The aggregate gross power of the plants amounted to approx. 389.5 GWe, the aggregate net power, to 370.5 GWe. This indicates a slight decrease of gross power by some 0.15 GWe compared to the level the year before, while the available net power increased, also slightly, by approx. 0.2 GWe. The Tarapur 3 nuclear generating unit in India, a D2O PWR of 540 MWe gross power, was newly commissioned. In 2006, 8 nuclear power plants in Europe (4 in the United Kingdom, 2 in Bulgaria, 1 each in the Slovak Republic and in Spain) discontinued power operation for good. 29 nuclear generating units, i.e. 6 plants more than at the end of 2005, were under construction in late 2006 in 9 countries with an aggregate gross power of approx. 25.5 GWe. Worldwide, some 40 new nuclear power plants are in the concrete project design, planning, and licensing phases; in some of these cases, contracts have already been signed. Net electricity generation in nuclear power plants worldwide in 2006 achieved another top ranking level of approx. 2,660 billion kWh (2005: approx. 2,750 billion kWh). Since the first generation of electricity in a nuclear power plant in the EBR-1 fast breeder (USA) on December 20, 1951, cumulated gross production has reached approx. 56,875 billion kWh, and operating experience has grown to some 12,399 reactor years. (orig.)