Nuclear plants around the world

A very serious issue this past week is the disaster created after the terrible earthquake in Japan, where thousands have died, cities have been destroyed but the most serious result has been the catastrophe at the nuclear plant in Fukushima, which will create major problems for many countries, millions of people and the environment around the world. That is why I thought it interesting to see how many nuclear plants exist in the world and where they are located. 

There are currently 443 nuclear reactors, minus the ones destroyed now in Japan, which produce electricity in 30 countries. During 2004 they accounted for 16% of the production of electricity globally. The countries which have nuclear power are: Argentina, Armenia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Japan, India, Spain, Canada, China, Korea, Lithuania, UK, Mexico, South Africa Holland, Hungary, Ukraine, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Taiwan, Czech Republic and Finland.

27 nuclear power stations are under construction in Argentina, Bulgaria, Japan, India, Iran, China, Ukraine, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Taiwan and Finland. 

Unfortunately there have been nuclear accidents which have been categorised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which has created the International Nuclear Event Scale. The Chernobyl disaster was given the number 7, which is the highest making it a major accident. The current crisis in Japan was given a 4 (an accident without significant off-site risk). Unfortunately this has been "upgraded", with a prospect of surpassing the Chernobyl catastrophe.

Lets only hope that governments around the world see this as a serious matter and rethink the nuclear energy as a major source of creating electricity. Maybe a new source is the solution, which is environmentally friendly and is not as dangerous.