1% increase in civil nuclear energy sector

The world has witnessed an increase of one per cent in civil nuclear power generation between 2008 and 2009, according to a US-based institute. Allaying the concerns about safety and radioactive waste management, 15 per cent of the world's electricity was generated from nuclear power in 2009, while it provided about 14 per cent of energy demands in the previous year. Till February this year, 29 countries were operating 436 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and 56 new nuclear plants were under construction in 14 countries. The civil nuclear energy sector is witnessing "renaissance", Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom, a regulatory body of Russian nuclear complex, said at an International Conference on Access to Civil Nuclear Energy on Monday. "We have heard of revival in the nuclear energy industry for several years. But these words are taken in a special way today because they have past the test of the crisis," he said. "Two years ago, when we only started talking of the renaissance of nuclear energy, one could often hear that it was brought about only by a sharp growth of oil prices. But now the price of oil is $70-80, not 200, per barrel. However leading politicians are talking about revival of nuclear energy again. And, most importantly, nuclear energy development programmes have not been changed in any of the countries that have announced them," he said. "This means that the number of nuclear power plants under construction and the number of countries making decisions on the development of nuclear energy will continue to grow every day," Kiriyenko said