In 2017, there were nuclear reactors in operation in 14 European Union Member States. As regard nuclear heat production, Hungary is 9th in the EU and 2nd in Eastern Europe.
There were nuclear reactors in operation in 14 EU Member States in 2017: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Spain, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. There are no nuclear facilities in the other EU Member States.
The total production of nuclear heat in the EU in 2017 was 210 726 thousand tonnes of oil equivalent (toe), a decrease of 10.0 % compared with 2009 and 1.3 % below the value for 2016.
France was the biggest producer of nuclear heat in 2017 (103 861 thousand tonnes of oil equivalent), followed by Germany (19 655 ktoe). This is nearly five times the nuclear heat production of the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary. The German government had decided after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 to bring all of its NPPs to halt by 2022. Sweden (16 351 ktoe) was the third-largest producer of nuclear heat in 2017.
In Eastern Europe, there are NPPs in the Czech Republic (7017 ktoe), Hungary (4084 ktoe), Slovakia (3985 ktoe), Bulgaria (3941 ktoe), Romania (2907 ktoe) and Slovenia (1488 ktoe). Hungary has the 2nd largest nuclear heat production capacity in the region, but the expansion of the Paks NPP could make it the largest producer, assuming the other countries do not increase their own nuclear hear production capacities. It is unlikely to happen, though, as the Czech Republic also plans to boost its nuclear capacity.
The production of nuclear heat is considered in energy statistics as the energy source for nuclear energy, i.e. the total amount of heat obtained from the fission of nuclear fuels in nuclear reactors. This heat is subsequently used for the production of electricity or for other useful applications of heat.
