Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
History of the global nuclear power industry
Realized capacity
Installed capacity
Chernobyl
Three Mile
Island
Additional reactors
under construction
Active reactors
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency/Robert A. Rohde
after it had been privatized, British Energy had to be rescued by the UK
government, which in 2008 sold BE to Electricité de France.) But, through
most of the 1990s and 2000s, utilities shied away from investing in new
reactors in the US and Europe. Only in Asia did orders for nuclear reac-
tors continue.
Domestic and international concern about the safety of nuclear reactors
tends to fluctuate alongside major accidents. But lessons have been learnt
from these incidents. Since the Three Mile Island accident, the nuclear
industry in the US has consolidated into bigger and more technically
competent companies. Since the Chernobyl accident, similar reactors
without outer containment shells have been closed down. The safety
record of reactor operators has generally improved.
However, public concern about the disposal of nuclear fuel waste
remains a constant, because the problem remains a constant. Many coun-
tries are wrestling with the problems of permanent repositories for their
nuclear waste. But only one country, Finland, has taken a final decision
on a permanent burial site for its waste. The Onkalo tunnel, dug in low
forest on the western coast of Finland is the entrance to a spiralling track
that reaches down through solid rock to a depth of five hundred metres. A
system of multiple barriers - most of them engineered, one of them being
natural solid crystalline rock - protects a series of horizontal shafts right
