Total electricity generation in Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) member countries declined by 0.3% from 2014 to 2015, but electricity production at nuclear power plants increased by 0.2% over the same period, the NEA says in the latest edition of its Nuclear Energy Data report. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) area, total electricity generation also declined by 0.3% from 2014 to 2015 and electricity production at nuclear power plants decreased by 0.6%. The share of electricity production from nuclear power plants in NEA countries increased slightly, from 18.6% in 2014 to 18.7% in 2015, despite total nuclear capacity declining by 1.3% (from 325.9 GW in 2014 to 321.6 GW in 2015). The share of electricity production from nuclear power plants in the OECD area remained constant at 18.4% despite total nuclear capacity declining by 0.3% (from 300.7 GW in 2014 to 295.4 GW in 2015). The figures above show that operations at many nuclear power plants in NEA member countries were very efficient throughout 2015. Nuclear plants in Canada, Finland, France, Hungary, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, the UK and the US led the way with increased output in 2015, compared to 2014. Pressure vessel reactor issues that caused the idling of two reactors in Belgium led to the most significant decline in nuclear electricity generation in 2015, followed by reduced output in Switzerland because of a temporary reactor shutdown for similar reasons, the report says. Of the 19 NEA member countries with nuclear capacity, 10 countries had more than a 30% share of nuclear electricity production in the total net generation in 2015. The report is online: http://bit.ly/2ijLkca
