A population density map to help provide context to my nuclear power plant proximity analysis - April 22, 2011

A population density map to help provide context to my nuclear power plant proximity analysis - April 22, 2011

Following on from the population analysis which I published yesterday estimating quantitatively how many people live within certain distances of each of the world's nuclear power plants, some people have asked me for more information on population distribution itself, and whether it might provide more spatial context for the results of the analysis -- for example is the plant close to urban sprawl from a major city? Or why is it that nuclear power plants in France, for example – which with 58 nuclear reactors, is second only to the United States (which has 104) in terms of numbers of nuclear reactors -- nonetheless tend to have fewer people living near to them, compared with, for example, those in much smaller nuclear power nations such as Germany -- which have a comparable population?