Key Issues

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Secure Source of Electricity Today and for the Future

Electricity is part of daily life in the industrialized world and is rapidly expanding in developing nations. The expanded use of nuclear energy supports sustainable development principles—powering the world’s growing economies while protecting our environment and finite resources for future generations. Clean, safe, reliable nuclear energy is a vital partner in sustainable development.

U.S. electricity demand is expected to increase 28 percent by 2035, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Electricity demand is projected to increase an average of 1 percent per year in the United States. World electricity generation will increase 2.3 percent per year through 2035. Today, 104 nuclear power plants provide 20 percent of the United States’ electricity. They are reliable, efficient, non-emitting sources of electricity, capable of operating around the clock.

Worldwide, 438 reactors generate 14 percent of the electricity that helps economies develop sustainably. Sixty-one advanced reactors are under construction, providing opportunities for suppliers to produce jobs and economic growth.

Reactor fuel is abundant. Because uranium has few other commercial uses, nuclear power plants help conserve other precious natural resources. Uranium fuel is remarkably efficient and can even be recycled. One uranium fuel pellet, which weighs about 7 grams, provides as much energy as 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal or 149 gallons of oil.

According to a recent OECD study, nuclear energy could become the largest source of electricity worldwide by 2050—contributing almost one-quarter of all electricity.

Nuclear power does not emit air pollutants or greenhouse gases or greenhouse gases when generating electricity, making it a powerful tool for combating climate change.

Nuclear plants are clean over their entire life cycle. An International Energy Agency analysis found that a nuclear power plant’s life cycle emissions range from 2 to 59 gram-equivalents of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour. Only hydropower’s range ranked lower, at 2 to 48 grams of carbon dioxide-equivalents per kilowatt-hour.

Three 1,000-megawatt reactors generate enough electricity to meet the annual electricity demand of a city the size of Montréal, but produce only 60 metric tons of used fuel each year—48 grams per inhabitant, or about 8 uranium fuel pellets. All nuclear power plant fuel is managed safely, from its beginnings in uranium mines through recycling and/or permanent disposal.