Show HN: I built interactive map of active and decommissioned nuclear stations

Hi all,

I am not an expert in nuclear energy but I've always wondered and found it difficult to get a clear picture about the amount of nuclear stations located in a specific region. So I built this tool that shows all the nuclear plants in the world, scaled by their capacity and with indication of their status. Clustering is enabled by default and allows to see the sum potential capacity of a region.

It's a fun tool for me: e.g. disable clustering, scale circle radius to 70%, go to EU, and you'll see Germany has shutdown all of the stations. Ofc it's a widely known fact, but what came to my surprise is that Poland, Turkey, Scandinavian countries, Africa have literally 1 to none nuclear stations. Which is kinda strange because some of these regions are modern, well-developed, and Africa specifically was sourcing lots of nuclear fuel for other countries other the years.

idk what to do with it yet, but I think I'll come up with ideas for future improvements as I believe nuclear sector will grow drastically.

Show HN: I built interactive map of active and decommissioned nuclear stations
nuclearstations.com

> what came to my surprise is that Poland, Turkey, Scandinavian countries, Africa have literally 1 to none nuclear stations.

Also, Austria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Austria

Short timeline:

- 1972: started building its first nuclear power plant

- 1978: parliament decides to ban nuclear power for 20 years

- 1997: ban is made permanent

Note that the initial decision for the ban was even before Chernobyl (the event that greatly boosted anti-nuclear sentiment in Europe).

What's important to keep in mind is that fuel from nuclear power plants can also be used for developing nuclear weapons, so historically only states "trustworthy" to the US or the former USSR were allowed access to the technology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_proliferation#Dual-Use...).

Indeed. I wonder what are the real reasons behind these bans in German nations. Can't believe it's just for political populism, there must be something more substantial.

> Can't believe it's just for political populism, there must be something more substantial.

Can you expand on what you mean by that? Also, generalizing "German" nations like this does seem a bit odd to me. Austria has a very clear and different history with nuclear power compared to Germany where it is only recently that they vowed to get rid of nuclear. For the latter case, it very much was due to events around the Fukushima nuclear accident what contributed greatly to the decision.

What's a "nuclear station" .. does a 20 megawatt reactor count?

https://www.ansto.gov.au/education/nuclear-facts

How about mobile reactors .. they're purposely hard to geolocate but their number is (up to a point) relatively well known (within circles).

Are you across the reactors under construction? China has a good number on the go and planned to break ground in the near future, both on their home soil and for global clients.

> and Africa specifically was sourcing lots of nuclear fuel for other countries other the years.

Not especially willingly as an active source. The Congo region was the source of much of the Cold War nuclear material for the vast proliferation of nuclear weapons, but various non African powers kept the area in conflict to prevent the rise of any representative government that would oppose that extraction.