The International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) said Tuesday that South Korea is the world’s second fastest builder of nuclear power plants, trailing only Japan.
 
The IAEA said of 31 countries in possession of operating nuclear power plants, 15 have completed the construction of new facilities over the past two decades.
 
The 15 countries have built a total of 83 nuclear power plants since 1966. The construction has taken an average of 190 months per plant to complete, with considerable differences in each country.
 
The construction period was the shortest in Japan, which has built eight nuclear power plants over the past 20 years, taking 46 months on average per piece.
 
During the same period, South Korea built 13 plants, taking 56 months on average per facility, followed by China with 68 months.
 
France, a nation heavily dependent on nuclear power generation, has built four new plants, spending an average of 126 months per facility. It is nearly triple the amount of time Japan takes.
 
It took 272 months for the U.S. to build one new nuclear power plant. It possesses 100 nuclear power plants, the largest number in the world.