Nuclear Powers of the World

As we all know nuclear power can be used for more then just a power source to run our daily lives. It is also can be used as a weapon which can cause major destruction and devastation. After reading a article in Newsweek about Pakistan increasing their nuclear reactors and satellite images of them expanding their facilities I wanted to look into the countries which have the most nuclear power and some facts about them. I found quite a few very interesting articles which outline the top countries and where they are in the last two years. The first one goes over some statistics which are compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the World Nuclear Association which are all international organizations that support peaceful use of nuclear power. The article includes several tables which list information from top ten  nuclear reactors per country to top ten countries with nuclear reactors under construction. I found it interesting that china has so many new reactors planned to be built but the article does go on to say they have a growing population need which will have to be supported. The second web page also list a top ten with a few different countries added. The one thing I found very interesting about the second web page is that it indicates which countries are a part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and some that are not. Comparing the two web pages I come up with a few interesting questions. One being why is China planning on making so many nuclear weapons in fact 38,360 if they are apart of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? Well Below are the web pages and if you visit them I'm sure you'll come to your own conclusions.

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/15/pakistan-s-a-q-khan-my-nuclear-manifesto.html

http://green.blorge.com/2010/01/the-top-10-nuclear-power-countries/

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/top10-nuclear-weapons-countries.html