<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/another-miserable-year-for-nuclear-power-as-renewables-surge/>
"The latest
World Nuclear Industry Status Report has crunched the numbers to
show that 2025 was another underwhelming year for nuclear power.
Here are the key 2025 global figures:
* power reactor startups (grid connections): 4 reactors, 4.4 gigawatts (GW)
capacity
* permanent shutdowns: 7 reactors, 2.8 GW
* net growth of nuclear capacity: 1.6 GW
* power reactor construction starts: 11 reactors, 12.0 GW
The four reactor startups were in China (2), Russia and India. That is the
lowest number of startups since 2017.
The seven permanent reactor shutdowns were in Belgium (3), Russia (3) and
Taiwan.
The net decline of three operating reactors makes 2025 the worst year on that
criterion since 2012, when many reactors were permanently closed due to the
Fukushima disaster in March 2011.
The 11 construction starts in 2025 — the highest number since 2010 — were in
China (9), South Korea and Russia.
As of 1 January 2026, according to the World Nuclear status report –
WNISR-2026:
* 404 nuclear power reactors were operating in the world — five less than a
year earlier and 34 less than the historic peak of 438 in 2002.
* Nuclear accounted for 9.0 percent of global electricity generation, barely
half its historic peak of 17.5 percent in 1996.
* 31 countries were operating nuclear power plants worldwide, one fewer than a
year earlier as Taiwan closed its last reactor in May 2025.
Taiwan is the fifth country to abandon its nuclear power program following
Italy (1990), Kazakhstan (1999), Lithuania (2009) and Germany (2023).
Overall, the 25-year pattern of global stagnation continues, with no end in
sight. Installed nuclear capacity of 4.4 GW in 2025 was 180 times lower than
the estimated 793 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity (up from 717 GW in
2024).
In China, new nuclear capacity in 2025 amounted to 2.5 GW whereas solar
capacity installed in the first 11 months of 2025 amounted to an estimated 275
GW. The nuclear share of electricity generation in China has fallen for four
years in a row after peaking at 5.0 percent in 2021.
That’s despite China’s status as the only significant growth market in the
world, with a net growth of around 50 reactors over the past 20 years and a net
decline of around 50 reactors in the rest of the world.
Conspicuously absent from the lists of reactor startups and construction starts
are any small modular reactors or any ‘Generation IV’ reactors such as fast
neutron reactors, fusion reactors, molten salt reactors, etc."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
