Another miserable year for nuclear power as renewables surge.

All renewables (including hydro) accounted for 47.7 percent while nuclear (which fell by nearly two percent last year) now accounts for less than half that amount (23.4 percent)

Jim Green, Jan 27, 2026, 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 lower 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.

Dramatic drop in number of countries building reactors

The number of countries building power reactors has fallen off a cliff. WNISR-2026 notes:

“The number of building countries declined by almost one third, from 16 to 11, in just two years, with several countries having completed their last construction project (France, United Arab Emirates, United States), or suspended if not terminated construction (Argentina, Brazil, Japan), while only one country was added to the list (Pakistan).

“Only eight of the 31 countries currently operating commercial nuclear plants are building new ones, while three are newcomer countries (Bangladesh, Egypt, Türkiye) in the course of building their first reactors, all implemented by the Russian nuclear industry.”

The number of countries operating power reactors reached 32 in the mid-1990s. Since then it has fallen to 31.

Globally, the number of power reactors under construction increased by seven in 2025 — entirely due to China. China has 36 reactors under construction, more than half of the global total of 66.

Not a single power reactor is under construction across the 35 countries of the American continent.

Only one reactor is under construction in the European Union (in Slovakia). Solar and wind (30 percent combined) overtook fossil fuels (29 percent) for EU electricity generation last year.

All renewables (including hydro) accounted for 47.7 percent while nuclear (which fell by nearly two percent last year) now accounts for less than half that amount (23.4 percent).

Over the six-years from 2020-26, Chinese and Russian companies have been the only builders worldwide responsible for reactor construction starts, with the exception of one project in South Korea. Only Russia, China and France are building reactors abroad.

The ‘peaceful atom’

WNISR-2026 notes that of the total of 66 reactors under construction in 11 countries, 63 (95 percent) are either in nuclear-weapon states (50) or are implemented by companies controlled by nuclear-weapon states in other countries (13). Only the three construction projects in South Korea fall outside this category.

Iran’s uranium enrichment program drew attention to the potential to weaponise the ‘peaceful atom’ and the military attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year by Israel and the US added to the long history of nation-states attacking nuclear plants to prevent weapons proliferation (or for that reason among others).

Other examples of conventional military attacks on nuclear plants to prevent weapons proliferation include Israel’s destruction of reactor components awaiting shipment to Iraq, in France in 1979; Israel’s destruction of a research reactor in Iraq in 1981; military strikes by Iraq and Iran on each other’s nuclear facilities during the 1980-88 war; the United States’ destruction of a research reactor in Iraq in 1991; Iraq’s attempted missile strikes on Israel’s nuclear facilities in 1991; and Israel’s bombing of a suspected nuclear reactor site in Syria in 2007.

Russia’s attacks on nuclear plants in Ukraine probably aren’t motivated by weapons proliferation concerns. Nonetheless, the risk of a nuclear catastrophe on top of the ongoing mass murder of conventional warfare highlights the role of nuclear plants as stationary terrorist targets or weapons of mass destruction.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi recently said that fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has left Europe’s largest nuclear plant in an “extremely fragile, volatile condition”.

Apart from the fragile, volatile situation at Zaporizhzhia, low-lights in 2025 included a drone attack which seriously damaged the protective dome over the stricken Chernobyl #4 reactor and, more importantly, more than 10 attacks on nuclear power plant substations in Ukraine which are, according to the IAEA, “essential for nuclear safety and security” and “absolutely indispensable for providing the electricity all nuclear power plants need for reactor cooling and other safety systems.”

Industry hype

Despite the 25-year pattern of stagnation, the World Nuclear Association claims that global nuclear power capacity could more than triple to reach 1,446 GW by 2050. But there’s plenty of fine-print undermining this absurd projection:

* A big chunk of the projected growth (542 GW) “is not yet supported by identified projects”.
* Another big chunk (425 GW) comprises reactors that are planned, proposed or potential … all essentially meaningless categories.
* A “substantial” share of the required capacity growth depends “on large-scale programmes for proposed, potential, and government-targeted capacity that are not yet supported by firm investment decisions”.
* The required 65 GW per year from 2046-2050 is “roughly double the historic peak build rate seen in the 1980s”.
* Achieving the projection will require “unprecedented construction rates, strategic lifetime extension of existing reactors, and significant policy and market reforms”.
* Several national targets (such as the 293 GW of new capacity required to meet the United States’ 400 GW target) “rely heavily on an expansion of nuclear capacity where there is currently little or no ongoing construction, or identified reactors planned or proposed for deployment”.

Here’s the World Nuclear Association’s decidedly ‘iffy’ conclusion:

“If governments uphold their stated ambitions, if regulatory and market frameworks are adapted to support both existing and new reactors, and if the nuclear industry expands its capacity to deliver at scale, the world’s nuclear fleet can more than triple by 2050.”

It’s all comical nonsense. But put yourself in the position of a spin-doctor employed by the World Nuclear Association … could you do any better than to play make-believe?

A much more likely scenario is that the past 25 years of nuclear stagnation will be followed by another 25 years of stagnation. If there is any growth — and there may not be due to the ageing of the global reactor fleet and the industry’s other challenges — it will be marginal growth.

Nuclear power is staggeringly, stunningly and possibly irretrievably uneconomic

At the top of the list of the industry’s challenges is that it is staggeringly, stunningly and possibly irretrievably uneconomic. Here are the costs of some recent and proposed projects:

USA — Vogtle (Georgia) US$34 billion / 2.4 GW	A$23.5 billion / GW (completed)
UK — Hinkley Point£46 billion / 3.2 GW	$A29.4 billion / GW (under construction)

UK — Sizewell C£47.7 billion / 3.2 GW	A$30.6 billion / GW (construction yet to begin)
France — Flamanville€19.1 billion / 1.6 GW	A$21.3 billion / GW (completed)
SMR — NuScale (USA)US$9.3 billion / 462 MW	A$30.1 billion / GW (cancelled before construction began)
SMR — Darlington (Canada)C$20.9 billion / 1.2 GW	A$19.1 billion / GW (construction yet to begin)
SMR — CAREM (Argentina)US$750 million / 32 MW	A$34.0 billion / GW (construction began in 2014, abandoned 2025)

Nuclear stagnation vs. renewables growth

As noted above, installed nuclear capacity of 4.4 GW in 2025 was 180 times lower than new solar and wind capacity.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts the installation of 4,600 GW of new renewable capacity in the five years from 2025-2030, twice as much as in the previous five years. (Current global nuclear capacity is 369 GW.)

The IEA stated in October 2025 that:

* Renewables will surpass coal at the end of 2025 (or by mid-2026 at the latest) to become the largest source of electricity generation globally. (The World Economic Forum states that renewables overtook coal in the first half of 2025.)
* The share of renewables in global electricity generation is projected to rise from 32 percent in 2024 to 43 percent by 2030.
* From 2025-2030, renewables are expected to meet over 90 percent of global electricity demand growth.

Over the past decade we’ve seen renewable electricity generation double then triple nuclear power generation. By the end of this decade renewables will out-generate nuclear by a factor of 5-7.

Dr. Jim Green is the national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia and a member of the Nuclear Consulting Group.