Let me ask you a question. What do you think about the global nuclear industry and changes in energy supply over the last decade? Which word best describes nuclear energy over recent years? Blooming, growing, stable, decaying, dead?

Figure 1 shows growth in energy consumed over the last 11 years, measured as kilowatt-hours from each energy source — that is the measure of how well each energy source has been able to increase sales of its product (the data comes from the BP Amoco report on world energy consumption). The figure shows the three main competitors to nuclear energy. But where is nuclear?

Here comes the good news. In the European Union nuclear has the second highest growth at almost 25% (Figure 2). If we take the whole of Europe, nuclear is still second highest with more than 25% growth (Figure 3). In the Asia–Pacific region, nuclear is again second highest with 90% growth (Figure 4). There has been a decrease in power output from all sources in the former Soviet Union, but the nuclear decrease has been the second lowest (Figure 5).

There is even better good news. In North America, nuclear was the fastest growing energy source with an increase of over 30% (Figure 6). This is not counting installed capacity, which is misleading, but counting what has actually been produced and consumed. Nuclear performance has improved over the last decade in the USA. This extra production is equal to the building of 19 new reactors.

Looking at the OECD as a whole, nuclear has been the fastest growing energy source, at almost 40% growth (Figure 7). In overall world energy supply, nuclear has seen more than 30% growth in the last decade (Figure 8). Thus the clear global winner is nuclear.

How did this match with your perception? Best wishes for another decade with steady growth.