Oil giant BP's annual energy review shows that total world nuclear energy consumption increased by 2.8% in 2001 - making it the fastest-growing energy source year-on-year.
The BP review shows that world-wide nuclear energy consumption rose to 601.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE), up from 585 MTOE in 2000. The nuclear increase came against the background of a rise of just 0.3% in total world primary energy consumption, to 9124.8 MTOE. The nuclear share in total consumption rose accordingly, from 6.4% to 6.6%.
Coal was the second-fastest growing energy source world-wide, rising 1.7% to 2255.1 MTOE, largely as a result of increased demand in China and other Asian countries. By comparison, hydro-power consumption dropped 3.7% to 594.5 MTOE - reflecting drops of 14.1% and 11.7% in North America and Brazil respectively. Oil consumption decreased by 0.2% to 3510.6 million tonnes - the first such decline since 1993. Natural gas consumption increased by just 0.3% to 2164.3 MTOE - a marked change from the 4.3% increase registered the previous year, when it was the fastest-growing energy source world-wide (see News No. 204, 27th June 2001).
On a region-by-region basis, nuclear consumption rose by 3% in Europe (3.1% in the 15 EU countries), by 2.3% in North America, by 1.4% in Asia Pacific, by 3.6% in the Former Soviet Union, and by 82.4% in Central and South America (following start-up of Brazil's Angra-2 in July 2000). Africa - with only one nuclear power plant (Koeberg, South Africa) - saw a 17.6% drop.
The 2001 nuclear consumption figure of 601.2 MTOE would be equivalent to total nuclear electrical production of roughly 2740 terawatt-hours (TWh). Final world nuclear production figures for 2001 have not yet been published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
BP derives MTOE 'primary values' for both nuclear energy and hydro power by calculating that one million tonnes of oil corresponds to about 12 TWh of electricity. It then converts to an electrical energy equivalent, assuming 38% conversion efficiency in a modern thermal power station.