Research status of nuclear power: A review

The purpose of this study is to provide the latest research information through atomic power literature analysis for people who are interested in research advancement on nuclear power, and to motivate more discussion and attention on nuclear power. The research on nuclear power has attracted much attention and the literature expanding substantially. This paper characterizes the nuclear power literature during 1996 and 2015 by archiving the data from Science Citation Index Expanded and its implications applying the bibliometric method at country level. Using the bibliometric techniques, we first investigate general spatial distribution, and then explore cross-country comparisons of scientific production, focusing on the country productivity distribution analysis, and institution analysis and research topics analysis. Furthermore, using the bibliometric indicators of the activity index and attractive index, we calculated citation score to further explore research efforts, influence and quality among the 10 most productive countries. First, the results indicate that the USA, Germany and Japan are the three top countries contributing to nuclear power literature, which published 24.34%, 11.04%, 10.87% of all literature, respectively. The great majority of countries come from America and Europe, and there are no African countries significantly involved in this area in the top 30 countries. Second, performance ranking of these countries by institutions echoes the countries’ publication performances. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is the leading institution by contributing/sponsoring 1061 articles. Overall, American, Japanese and South Korea institutions are the major ones, publishing nuclear power papers. Third, the correlation network and pattern of research topics forms five clusters, the hot and core research topic is model representing simulation. Fourth, we find that Japan holds the leading position with the highest research production, impact and citation score. England and France balance their cost and benefit situation. However, the USA is the only country whose research effort and impact has been continuously declining. China shows a sharp increase in research production but with declining citation score. China should improve production quality and citation score in this field.