21 January 2025

Nuclear 2024 in Numbers

Fewer Countries Building New Reactors

As of 1 January 2025, 411 nuclear power reactors were operating in the world—two units less than one year earlier—with an identical combined capacity of 371 gigawatt (GW). Construction of new nuclear plants was underway in 13 countries, that is two fewer countries than a year ago. Outside China, the number of reactors under construction dropped by one.

WNISR, 21 January 2025

In 2024, seven new reactors with a total capacity of 8.2 GW were connected to the grid—three in China and one each in France, India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States (U.S.)—while four totaling 3.9 GW were closed—two in Canada and one each in Russia and Taiwan. The net increase in operating nuclear capacity was thus 4.3 GW. This compares with an estimated 161 GW of solar capacity added in China alone in the first nine months of 2024, and about 40 GW of new solar connected to the grid in the U.S. over the year 2024.

With the startup of their respective latest unit, there are no more reactors under construction in the U.S. that operates the world’s largest nuclear fleet, in France with the third largest fleet, and in the UAE. The startups in the U.S. and France took place following countless delays.

U.S. builder Westinghouse had promised to build the AP1000 reactors at Vogtle and V.C. Summer in three years. In 2017, four years into the construction at the two U.S. sites, Westinghouse went bankrupt, the construction of the two units at V.C. Summer was abandoned after expenditure of some US$10 billion and nine rate increases. An avalanche of legal cases followed. In the latest trial, Jeffrey Benjamin, former “senior vice president for new plants and major projects at the Westinghouse Electric Company” who “directly supervised all new nuclear projects worldwide during the V.C. Summer project”, in November 2024, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to causing the builder utility SCANA “to keep false records in connection with the failed V.C. Summer nuclear construction project”.

In France, the world’s largest nuclear operator, state-owned Électricité de France (EDF) started construction of the Flamanville-3 (FL3) Franco-German European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in 2007 with the promise of grid connection in 2012. In 2023, the French government feared EDF going bankrupt and decided to renationalize the company. Following numerous broken FL3 grid-connection promises over the years, it turned out that EDF was unable to provide a correct grid-connection forecast even 24 hours in advance. While FL3 was finally hooked up to the grid on 21 December 2024, it took until mid-January 2025 for it to generate more power than it consumes. The French Court of Accounts, on 14 January 2025, issued a scathing account and cost update for FL3 estimating the total at €₂₀₂₃23.7 billion, a sevenfold increase over the initial estimate of €3.3 billion.

Of the nine construction starts in 2024, six were implemented in China plus one in Pakistan implemented by Chinese companies; Russia kicked off the remaining two building sites, one at home and one in Egypt. Thus, the basic trend has not changed over the past five years: globally, a total of 40 reactor construction-starts took place, of which 26 (62 percent) in China, one in Pakistan carried out by Chinese companies, and the other 13 implemented by the Russian nuclear industry in Egypt, India, Türkiye, and at home. Russia also began building four of the units that got under way in China. Over the entire period, Chinese and Russian companies have been the only builders with official reactor construction starts worldwide.

As of 1 January 2025, there were 61 units under construction in 13 countries, that is two units more than a year earlier, but building activities occur in two fewer countries. In three countries (France, UAE, U.S.), the last reactor under construction started up during the past year, while in one new country (Pakistan) construction started on one reactor. Almost half of the reactors (29) are under construction in China, including four implemented by the Russian industry which is also building in Bangladesh (2), Egypt (4), India (4), Iran (1), Turkey (4), and at home (6), thus a total of 25 units. The only country besides Russia and China building abroad is France with two units underway in the U.K. Almost all constructions (over 93 percent) are implemented either in Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) or by companies controlled by NWS in other countries. The only exceptions are building sites in Argentina (a 25-MW unit with uncertain construction status), Japan (a 1300-MW unit with uncertain construction status), and South Korea (two 1300-MW units).