Average production costs for nuclear energy are now just 1.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while electricity produced from gas costs 3.4 cents per kWh. nuclear industry generated nine percent more nuclear electricity in 1999 than in 1998. Despite a reduction in the number of power plants, the U.S. capacity factor in 1998 was 80 percent for about 100 reactors, compared to 58 percent in 1980 and 66 percent in 1990. In 1998, unit capacity factor (the fraction of a power plant's capacity that it actually generates) for operating reactors reached record levels. In America and around the globe, nuclear safety and efficiency have improved significantly since 1990. With 434 operating reactors worldwide, nuclear power is meeting the annual electrical needs of more than a billion people. South Korea and China have announced ambitious plans to expand their nuclear-power capabilities - in the case of South Korea, by building 16 new plants, increasing capacity by more than 100 percent. France generates 79 percent of its electricity with nuclear power Belgium, 60 percent Sweden, 42 percent Switzerland, 39 percent Spain, 37 percent Japan, 34 percent the United Kingdom, 21 percent and the United States (the largest producer of nuclear energy in the world), 20 percent. Contrary to the assertions of antinuclear organizations, nuclear power is neither dead nor dying. Meanwhile, natural gas and nuclear power have steadily increased their share and should continue to do so. Although oil and coal still dominate, their market fraction began declining decades ago. Most of the world's energy today comes from petroleum (39.5 percent), coal (24.2 percent), natural gas (22.1 percent), hydroelectric power (6.9 percent), and nuclear power (6.3 percent). "Given the levels of consumption likely in the future," the Royal Society and Royal Academy caution, "it will be an immense challenge to meet the global demand for energy without unsustainable long-term damage to the environment." That damage includes surface and air pollution and global warming. The International Energy Agency (IEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) projects 65 percent growth in world energy demand by 2020, two-thirds of that coming from developing countries. "At a global level," the British Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering estimate in a 1999 report on nuclear energy and climate change, "we can expect our consumption of energy at least to double in the next 50 years and to grow by a factor of up to five in the next 100 years as the world population increases and as people seek to improve their standards of living." Even with vigorous conservation, world energy production would have to triple by 2050 to support consumption at a mere one-third of today's U.S. For the sake of safety as well as security, that increased energy supply should come from diverse sources. National security therefore requires developed nations to help increase energy production in their more populous developing counterparts. Such conditions create instability and the potential for widespread violence. Development depends on energy, and the alternative to development is suffering: poverty, disease, and death. Yet one-third of that number - two billion people - lack access to electricity. World population is steadily increasing, having passed six billion in 1999. It builds and lights schools, purifies water, powers farm machinery, drives sewing machines and robot assemblers, stores and moves information. Energy multiplies human labor, increasing productivity.
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