By 2020, developing nations could be responsible for over 40 percent of energy use and more than half of global carbon emissions. A recent study prepared for the U.S. Congress by the Environmental Protection Agency emphasized the implications of energy growth in developing countries. In order to make a significant dent in greenhouse gas emissions, hundreds of nuclear power plants would have to be operating in the Third World by the year 2010. As of 1988, just 23 reactors were operating in developing countries, many only intermittently. Both are among the more affluent nations in the Third World.
Capital costs are high.
Nuclear power is the most capital-intensive form of energy supply, with the possible exception of a few large hydroelectric projects. Interest payments on existing international debt are crippling the development plans of many countries, and capital continues to be a scarce resource in most of the rest of the Third World. International borrowing for electric power already exceeds 40 percent of total annual public investment in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, South Korea, and Mexico. Nuclear power would increase the debt burden in these countries even further. And because the World Bank, an important source of funds for power development, does not finance nuclear projects, borrowers must seek loans at higher costs in the private capital markets.