United Kingdom , electrical generating capacity

Figure 6-1. United Kingdom Electricity Generation Capacity (72.5 GW Total)...

The United States derived about 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy in 2002 (EIA, Electric Power Monthly, 2003). The 103 power reactors operating today have a total capacity of nearly 100 gigawatts electric (GWe) and constitute about 13 percent of the installed U.S. electric generation capacity. The current U.S. plants use water as the coolant and neutron moderator (hence called light-water reactors, or LWRs) and rely on the steam Rankine cycle as the thermal-to-electrical power conversion cycle. Other countries use other technologies—notably C02-cooled reactors in the United Kingdom and heavy-water-cooled reactors (HWRs) in Canada and India. 

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