Five new reactors raised global nuclear capacity by 4.8 GW in 2014

In 2014, five new reactors started generating power, raising the global nuclear capacity by more than 4.7 GW: during the year, three reactors were commissioned in China, namely 1,018 MW Ningde-2, 1,000 MW Fuqing-1 and 1,000 MW Fangjiashan-1, while 692 MW Atucha-2 (Argentina) and 1,011 MW Rostov-3 (Russia) were brought on stream. In addition, the capacity of the existing Fermi-2 reactor was raised by 15-20 MW. This raises the number of operational reactors to 436 and the installed nuclear capacity to nearly 378 GW worldwide. At the end of 2014, 70 nuclear reactors were under construction, totalling nearly 74 GW of capacity. Construction works started for three reactors: 1,345 MW Barakah-3 in the United Arab Emirates, 1,109 MW Ostrovets-2 in Belarus and 25 MW Carem 25 in Argentina. In December 2014, the 605 MW Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was shut down permanently in the United States. In Japan, where the entire nuclear fleet remains shut down, the units 5 and 6 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant were officially classed as being decommissioned.