U.S. generates record high nuclear electricity in 2018: report

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Xinhua) -- nuclear electricity generation in the United States hit a new record in 2018, even as several nuclear power plants went offline, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday.

According to EIA's data, the total electricity generation by U.S. nuclear power plants in 2018 was 807.1 million megawatthours (MWh), which was slightly higher than the previous peak of 807 million MWh in 2010.

"Although several nuclear power plants have closed since 2010, a combination of added capacity through uprates and shorter refueling and maintenance cycles allowed the remaining nuclear power plants to produce more electricity," said EIA.

However, EIA expected that U.S. nuclear power output would decline in the near future, as two more nuclear power plants were expected to retire later this year.

From 2010 to 2018, EIA said only one new nuclear power plant came online in the United States. Meanwhile, seven plants with a combined capacity of 5.3 gigawatts had retired since 2013.

EIA said the U.S. nuclear power fleet maintained a capacity of nearly 800 million MWh for over a decade by increasing productivity, cutting the time for refueling or maintenance, and improving balance-of-plant thermal efficiency.

WorldAtlas, an information website, reported a week ago that the United States, France, Japan, China, and Russia were the top five nuclear power plant owners on the planet.