NUCLEAR POWER GROWTH OUTSIDE THE U.S. (EXCLUDING COMMUNIST COUNTRIES): 1980–2000

The industrialized nations of the world are increasing their energy consumption at a rate equal to or greater than the U.S. To meet the growing electric energy demand, many of these nations are turning to nuclear power stations. Commercial nuclear power development is presently being pursued by more than two dozen nations, with most of the development being centered in Europe and Japan. The AEC projects that the installed nuclear power capacity will be 140 thousand megawatts at the end of 1980, 578 thousand megawatts at the end of 1990, and 1,460 thousand megawatts at the end of the year 2000 (see Table B–4).

Since this study is primarily concerned with U.S. safeguards, less attention has been given to the worldwide nuclear material flow projections than to the U.S. nuclear material flows. Furthermore, it would not be possible to treat all foreign nations as a single unit as implied by the computer model used for the U.S. projections. For example, in the U.S. projections the number of support facilities is dependent upon the total megawatts of installed nuclear