German Nuclear Power Plants Leading the Way World-wide in 2000

In 2000, the German nuclear power plants once again were at the top of the world`s best performers: in the international ranking of nuclear electricity production, the ten most efficient nuclear power plants included no less than six German reactors in first, second and third place as well as in sixth, seventh and eighth position. As in the year 1999, the Isar-2 nuclear power plant was electricity production world champion again last year, having generated 11.94 billion kilowatt hours (kWh). In second place followed the Brokdorf nuclear power plant (11.93 billion kWh) and in third place the Grohnde nuclear power plant (11.68 billion kWh). Apart from the six German nuclear power plants, one Japanese and three US facilities complete the top ten.


German nuclear power plants have been leading the way internationally since 1980. In the past 12 years alone, the top ten included nine times seven and three times six German reactors. Results like these are only possible if the individual nuclear power plants reach the corresponding high capacity level and achieve an excellent availability record.


What is remarkable within the top ten is that for the first time ever, all reactors have generated more than eleven billion kilowatt hours of electricity. For comparison: ten billion kilowatt hours are enough to provide a town with over a million inhabitants, such as e. g. Hamburg, with a year`s supply of electricity.


Last year, 439 nuclear power plants were in operation world-wide. They generated 2.5 trillion kWh of electricity. Nuclear power thus contributed 16 % to world-wide electricity production.


Since the beginnings of the peaceful utilization of nuclear power, a total of 39.7 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity were produced world-wide from uranium and plutonium, which is an equivalent of 39,700,000,000,000 kWh (!). This corresponds to 70 times the annual electricity production (from all energy sources) in Germany.


Remarks:
Figures taken i. a. from information provided by "platts Nucleonics Week", McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. See also tables below.

Top Ten 2000