THE world nuclear industry status report for 2016 may give SA pause for thought about its ambitions to build nuclear power capacity.The report says the global nuclear industry is in crisis, and renewable energy is taking over.It states globally no nuclear reactor construction projects were started in the first half. It also says the number of units under construction declined for the third year in a row — from 67 reactors at the end of 2013, to 58 by mid-2016, of which 21 are in China."Globally, wind power output grew by 17%, solar by 33%, nuclear by 1.3%," the report says. Brazil, China, India, Japan and the Netherlands now all generate more electricity from wind turbines than from nuclear power.Of the 10 reactors that came on line in 2015 — more than in any year since the 1990s —. eight were in China. But construction on all of them began before the Fukushima reactor meltdown in Japan in 2011. This has subsequently had a major negatively effect on the global nuclear power industry...
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