There are currently 449 nuclear reactors operating in 31 countries, with total installed generating capacity of more than 390,000 megawatts, based on data from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nuclear power plants differ in various ways, including reactor types, vessel containments, cooling methods and dispatch purposes. The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, located on Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada, is currently the world’s largest operating nuclear power plant. Bruce has eight reactors c

South Korea has seen a rapid increase in the number of people going to see a movie alone over the past five years, a market report showed Wednesday.Men in their 30s and women aged 50 or older made up the largest portion of lone moviegoers.The survey showed they prefer watching movies alone because “they can focus on the film” (57.4 percent), “it‘s troublesome to decide when and where to watch when there is a companion,” (20.3 percent) and “it’s annoying to find a companion” (13.1 percent).The re

South Korea’s offshore fisheries output sank to a 44-year low in 2016 due to tumbling fish stocks caused by a combination of Chinese illegal fishing, climate change and overfishing, a report showed Tuesday.The country’s inshore and offshore fisheries production came to 923,000 tons last year, down 12.7 percent from the previous year and the lowest yearly catch since 1972, according to the report by the Korea Maritime Institute.The KMI said Chinese fishermen’s illegal fishing in South Korean wate

South Korea will intensify overseas marketing and build more maritime facilities in an effort to lure 2 million cruise tourists from all over the world, the government said Monday.The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it will hold the so-called “Port Sales” event in cities of the United States, China and Japan starting from March, with major cruise liners and travel agencies attending.It will also build five additional cruise docks in four seaports including Busan and Incheon, adding to the

South Koreans spent a new record high abroad last year on increased outbound travel, despite an economic slump and sagging domestic consumption, data showed Saturday.Expenditures on ordinary foreign trips, excluding stays for study, jumped 7.4 percent on-year to $23.1 billion for the year, according to the Bank of Korea and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.Koreans’ overseas spending has been on a constant rise from $15.5 billion in 2011 to $16.5 billion in 2012, $17.3 billion in 2013

Eight Asian airports are among the world’s busiest passenger airports. Beijing Capital International Airport remains the busiest airport in the region, according to the recently released data by Airports Council International.Beijing Capital International Airport handled the most international traffic in 2015 in Asia, adding 3.8 million over the previous year to reach 89.9 million.Worldwide passenger traffic increased 6.4 percent in 2015 to almost 7.2 billion, with increases in all the world’s s

According to the poll of 61,238 people older than 3 years old in 25,000 households by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning in 2016, 88.3 percent of South Koreans used the internet, with the number of users estimated at 43.64 million, up 3.2 percentage points, or 1.7 million, from the previous year. Nearly 9 out of 10 South Koreans use the internet, the survey showed.By age, the internet usage rate reached 100 percent for teens and those in their 20s, followed by 99.8 percent for thos

The shares of many countries’ populations who are on middle incomes has fallen and particularly in advanced countries, statistics gathered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed.The share of South Korea’s population that was in the middle income group -- defined as those with household disposable income of between 75 and 200 percent of the median -- came in at 60 percent, lower than the OECD average.The middle income groups have been declining since 1980. Countries s

President Park Geun-hye has reasons to fight any attempt to fast-track her impeachment trial. A delayed trial at the Constitutional Court, or more precisely the preordained departure of justices in its nine-member judge panel, increases her chances of surviving the impeachment, while giving her more time to muster support outside the courtroom. With Monday’s retirement of the court’s president, Justice Park Han-chul, the top court now must proceed with the trial with eight justices. Another just

The following is a list of the top- and bottom-ranked nations on graft watchdog Transparency International‘s 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index.For its 2016 index, the watchdog ranked 176 countries on a scale of 0-100, where zero means very corrupt and 100 signifies very clean.The data is based on surveys from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Economist Intelligence unit and other bodies.New Zealand and Denmark shared the number one spot with a score of 90 points, with Finland, Sw

South Korea will increase the total greenhouse gas emissions rights in its cap-and-trade scheme for this year, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.Under the revised 2017 emissions allocation plan endorsed by the Cabinet, some 538.9 million tons of emissions rights will be allocated to the trading market, up 17 million tons from the country’s earlier goal of 521.9 million tons for the year, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.South Korea’s cap-and-trade scheme is part of its plan to c

Sales of the Korean lottery Lotto hit their highest last year, statistics from its operator showed Monday, a trend that happens during an economic slump, social analysts say.Data from the Korea Lottery Commission said Lotto sales reached 3.55 trillion won ($3.04 billion) -- or 3.55 billion tickets -- last year, an increase of 9 percent from the year before. The sales volume was the highest on record since the lottery was first introduced here in 2002. The monetary amount of sales is also the de

  

Electronic waste is rising sharply across Asia as higher incomes allow hundreds of millions of people to buy smartphones and other gadgets, with serious consequences for human health and the environment, according to a UN study released Sunday.So-called e-waste in Asia has jumped 63 percent in five years, the report by the United Nations University said, as it warned of a need for most nations across the region to improve recycling and disposal methods.China more than doubled its own generation

For all the talk of how expensive it is to buy a house in London or New York, the most expensive major cities in the world are all in Asia.In Hong Kong, Mumbai, Beijing and Shanghai, it now takes more than 30 years for a household with the local median income to buy a 90-square-meter apartment, according to Oxford Economics examination of price-to-income ratios across the world.And the return from rents in Mumbai, Shanghai, Beijing and also Delhi are “remarkably low,” which could be an indicator