US Nuclear Electricity Hits Record High

The US nuclear industry supplied a record 806.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity across the country in 2007, the Energy Industry Administration (EIA) has announced.

National total nuclear generation was 2.4 percent higher than in 2006 and 2.3 percent higher than 2004, according to the EIA.

The largest increase was in the city of Tennessee which used four billion kilowatt hours more nuclear-provided electricity in 2007 than in 2006, an increase of 16 percent.

The total number of operating commercial nuclear reactors in the US increased from 103 to 104 in 2007, with the return to service of the Brown's Ferry 1 reactor, shut since 1985.

By Ozge Ibrahim