Load factors to end March 2012

摘要

furing the first three months of 2012, some 635 TWh of electricity was generated by the 399 nuclear reactors listed in Table 2. Their average load factor for the year to date is 75.4%; with the predominant reactor type PWRs achieving a load factor of 79.6% and BWRs 64.7%. In comparison, the first quarter of 2011 saw nuclear generation from 409 reactors reach almost 700 TWh and the average load factor of 83.5% for units with over a year's operation. As pointed out last time by one of our readers, although the total nuclear generation fell in 2011 compared with 2010, generation increased in many countries; notable exceptions being Germany, Japan and the USA. That pattern continued in early 2012.