What is the benefit of nuclear power?
AAccording to preliminary data, the U.S. commercial nuclear industry supplied more electricity in 2007 than in any prior year. This was made possible, in part, by a capacity factor (the amount of power actually generated compared with maximum possible generation) of 91.8 percent, eclipsing the 2002 record of 90.3 percent. Generation in 2007 was 2.4 percent higher than in 2006, and 2.3 percent higher than in the record year of 2004. Of the 31 states with commercial nuclear capacity, 17 experienced increases in output. The largest increase at the state level was in Tennessee, where output was 4 million megawatt hours greater than in 2006, an increase of 16.3 percent. Ref.: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/nuc_generation/gensum.
