2003 nuclear generation no record, still hefty

New York (Platts)--12Feb2004

Long regulatory outages in Japan cut nuclear generation some 86-mil MWh gross in 2003 from the 2002 output, reduced average capacity factor from 77% to 59%, and was the major factor in a worldwide decline in nuclear output of about 70-mil MWh, to some 2.60-bil MWh, according to an analysis by Platts Nucleonics Week.

World average capacity factor dropped more than two points, to 76.4%. Regulatory outages, mainly for top and bottom vessel head inspections and repairs, were also the major contributor to the decline of US nuclear generation by about 14-mil MWH, with average gross capacity factor dropping from nearly 90% to just over 87%. Nevertheless, in 2001, both the world and the US performances would have set records, so the 2003 showing still meant a large number of operators were running their plants very well.

South Korea's units generated some 13-mil more MWh and Russia's, 10-mil more than in 2002. The Czech Republic produced some 9-mil more MWh with Temelin's becoming fully functional, while Bulgaria lost about 3-mil MWh in part from the permanent shutdown of Kozloduy-1 and -2. And some nuclear units did very well indeed. Germany's 1,475-MW Isar-2 broke its own 2002 record by generating more than 12.3-mil MWh.

For the first time, the second largest generator was French: Electricite de France's (EDF) Cattenom-3, produced 11.7-mil MWh. Every one of the top 10 generators worldwide--six German, two French and two US units--put out more than 11-mil MWh in the year. Being among the top 50 generators globally by capacity factor still required exceeding 95% capacity factor in the year, as it did in 2001 and 2002.

The top 50 were led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's Kori-3, Ulchin-3 and Yonggwang-4, Southern California Edison's San Onofre-2, Kansai Electric Power's Mihama-1, Exelon's Limerick-1 and Byron-2, and Kansai Electric Power's Ohi-1.

This story was first published in Platts Nucleonics Week (http://www.platts.com/Nuclear/Newsletters & Reports/Nucleonics Week/).