With the connection of Ulchin-6 to the grid in January, the Republic of Korea has 20 units in operation.... Nuclear power provides 45 per cent of the country’s electricity. Elsewhere in Asia, nuclear power’s absolute and relative contributions are smaller, but China and India in particular plan significant expansion. China, with nine operating reactors, three under construction and 2 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power, plans expansion to 40 GW(e) by 2020 for 4 per cent of the electricity supply.

The IAEA maintains data on operating and shutdown reactors, and those under construction, as described in the latest Annual Report….India connected Tarapur-4, a 490 MW(e) pressurized heavy water reactor, to the grid in June. The country now has 15 reactors in operation and 8 more under construction. In 2004, nuclear power provided 2.8 per cent of the electricity supply. India’s goals are to increase nuclear capacity by a factor of 10 by 2022 and a factor of 90 by 2052. Pakistan gets 2.8 per cent of its electricity from two operating nuclear reactors. In 2005, construction began on Chasnupp-2, a 300 MW(e) pressurized water reactor. Plans call for an additional 8000 MW(e) of nuclear capacity by 2030, thereby increasing nuclear power’s share of electricity to 4.2 per cent.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, which is constructing a nuclear power plant, signed fuel-supply agreements in 2005 that provide for the return of spent fuel to the Russian Federation. Western Europe has 135 operating NPPs and now one under construction with the August 2005 construction start at Olkiluoto-3 in Finland. In line with nuclear phase-out policies in Germany and Sweden there were two retirements, Obrigheim in Germany and Barsebäck-2 in Sweden. Governments approved a lifetime extension of the Borssele NPP to 2033, i.e. a 60-year lifetime, in the Netherlands and ten-year lifetime extensions to Dungeness-B1 and Dungeness-B2 in the UK....

Russia has 31 nuclear power plants in operation and four under construction, and Eastern Europe has 39 operating plants and five under construction. Bilibino-2 in Russia received a five-year licence extension at the beginning of 2005....Both are small 11 MW(e) units providing district heat and electricity in the remote north-eastern Chukotka region.

In the United States of America, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved nine more licence renewals of 20 years each ...bringing the total number of approved licence renewals at the end of 2005 to 39. New energy legislation was enacted providing for government coverage of costs associated with certain potential licensing delays and a production tax credit....

The NRC is reviewing three applications for early site permits, and it expects to receive four applications for combined construction and operating licences by the end of 2007....

2005 has been a year of rising expectations for nuclear power. In March, high-level representatives of 74 governments, including 25 representatives at the ministerial level, gathered in Paris at a conference organized by the Agency to consider the future role of nuclear power.

The vast majority of participants affirmed that nuclear power can make a major contribution to meeting energy needs and sustaining the world’s development in the 21st century for a large number of both developed and developing countries. Among them were a number of countries currently without nuclear power programmes, such as Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, Poland, Turkey and Vietnam. Among the challenges facing countries starting up a nuclear power programme is that of establishing the necessary supporting infrastructure including the legal and regulatory infrastructure.