Further to the catastrophe in Fukushima, Japan, the Christian Science Monitor wrote an interesting article on the ten countries relying for more than 30 percent on nuclear for their electricity. As they put it :
” As dependent as Japan is on nuclear power, 12 nations are even more reliant it, according to the World Nuclear Association. Using 2007 data, here are the Top 10 most nuclear-dependent nations. ”
As you may perhaps remember I believe this energy source could provide 40 percent of the electricity of the United States and the European Union. This would enable both to cut their emissions.
Here is the list of countries :
- Hungary, 37 percent ;
- Armenia, 39.4 percent ;
- Slovenia, 40 percent ;
- Switzerland, 40 percent ;
- South Korea, 40 percent ;
- Sweden, 42 percent ;
- Ukraine, 48 percent ;
- Belgium, 54 percent ;
- Slovakia, 55 percent ;
- France, 75 percent. (Yes, we are first !! )
As one can easily note, five of these countries are former soviet republics. I am just wondering if all these reactors are as safe as the ones used in Chernobyl…
Meanwhile, Germany just decided to stop using this energy source by 2022. As you can easily imagine I don’t think this is the right move regarding climate change mitigation as I believe we need both renewables and nuclear.