The 12 EU member states with operational nuclear reactors collectively generated 649,524 GWh of electricity in 2024, 4.8% more than in 2023, the second consecutive year of growth in nuclear power generation in the EU bloc, data published by Eurostat, cited by Agerpres, show.
According to this data, nuclear power plants accounted for 23.3% of total electricity production in the EU.
The EU's largest nuclear power producer, France, accounted for more than half (58.6%) of all nuclear energy produced in the EU bloc (380,451 GWh). Next were Spain with 54,510 GWh (or 8.4% of the EU total), Sweden (50,665 GWh; 7.8%) and Finland (32,599 GWh; 5%).
Compared to the situation in 2023, nuclear power production increased the most in France (12.5%), Sweden (4.5%) and Slovenia (4.2%). The other nuclear power producers experienced decreases in production, ranging from minus 0.6% in Slovenia to minus 10.3% in the Netherlands.
In the case of Romania, the two reactors at Cernavodă produced 10,912 GWh in 2024, down from 11,191 GWh in 2023. Romania's nuclear energy production is lower than that of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. In the EU, the only Member States with lower nuclear energy production than Romania are the Netherlands and Slovenia.
France remained the country with the highest reliance on nuclear power, which in 2024 was responsible for 67.3% of total electricity generation. Another Member State where more than half of the electricity was produced in nuclear power plants was Slovakia (61.6%). In contrast, only 2.9% of the electricity produced in the Netherlands came from nuclear power plants.
Between 2006 and 2024, contrary to the general trend at EU level, seven Member States increased their nuclear electricity production. In first place is Romania, whose nuclear power generation only started in 1996, where between 2006 and 2024 nuclear power generation jumped by 93.8%. Other countries where nuclear power production increased are Finland (42.3%), Hungary (19%), the Czech Republic (14.2%), Slovenia (5.2%), the Netherlands (3.2%) and Slovakia (1.2%). During the same period, the rest of the countries (including the main producers) reduced their nuclear electricity production. Lithuania permanently shut down its nuclear plants in 2009, Germany in April 2023. Belgium recorded the largest decrease (minus 33%), followed by Sweden (minus 24.4%), Bulgaria (minus 19.6%), France (minus 15.5%) and Spain (minus 9.3%).
