Currently, the largest producer of nuclear energy is the United States. The total nuclear energy capacity in the USA is 102 GW. Second on the list is France, whose power plants have a total capacity of 64 GW. China came in third with a nuclear capacity of 58 GW. The next places are taken by Russia (29 GW), South Korea (27 GW) and Canada (15 GW).
China’s nuclear offensive
However, there may soon be a change in leadership, as China has the most nuclear power plants under construction of any country in the world. In the Middle Kingdom, 104 reactors in 22 nuclear power plants are under development. The completion of all these investments will increase the capacity of China’s power plants by 118 GW, which means that the total nuclear capacity in China will increase to 176 GW.
After the Chinese offensive, the United States will remain in high second place. The US plans to build only an additional 7 GW of capacity.
The new ranking, if future nuclear power plants are completed, is expected to be as follows: China, USA, France, Russia and India.
However, there are plans to decommission reactors that are not reflected in the stist chart. In the US, for example, the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is scheduled to retire its two reactors in 2030, while the Salem nuclear power plant’s reactors are licensed to operate until 2036 and 2040. In total, shutting down these four reactors will result in an estimated loss of 5 GW.
Russia plans to withdraw five reactors (total -4 GW), and Ukraine plans to withdraw one reactor (-1 GW).
New reactors under preparation
After China, India is the country with the most impressive plans to expand its nuclear power plant fleet. In India, 31 reactors in 9 power plants with a total capacity of 32 GW are to be built. Other countries committing to building more include Russia (21 GW), the UK (15 GW), Romania (15 GW) and Turkey (15 GW), which currently has no power plant. Poland, which also does not yet have nuclear energy, intends to build power plants with a capacity of 14 GW.
Meanwhile, France, Europe’s main nuclear power producer, will add 12 GW of capacity, and the United States and Iran expect to increase their capacity by 7 GW each.
There is also a list of countries, apart from the previously mentioned Turkey and Poland, that do not currently have nuclear energy, but plan to build reactors: Egypt (5 GW), Indonesia (4 GW), Kenya (4 GW), Kazakhstan (3 GW), Bangladesh (2 GW), Uzbekistan (2 GW) and the Philippines (0.04 GW).
Nuclear power plants around the world / statista.com
