World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2026 is out

29 September 2026, https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2026

The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2026 (WNISR2026) assesses on 596 pages the status and trends of the international nuclear industry. It provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data, including information on operation, production, fleet age, construction, and decommissioning of reactors.

Special focus is drawn to the status of the existing fleet and newbuild programs in China, France, Hungary, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as Poland which is planning to build its first nuclear power plant, Türkiye which is currently doing so, and Taiwan which initiated a potential reversal of its nuclear phaseout (completed last year).

WNISR2026 examines the prospects of the sector by addressing the very diverse status of nuclear power programs in some Potential Newcomer Countries, a redesigned chapter on the state of licensing and deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), and the traditional comparative analysis of Nuclear Power vs. Renewable Energy Deployment.

The fully updated chapter on Russia Nuclear Interdependencies scrutinizes not only supplies from Russia but also western industries’ dependence on Russia as a client for their nuclear products and services.

The Fukushima Status Report evaluates persistent onsite/offsite challenges, 15 years after the disaster began, and provides an overview of the controversy around direct and indirect health effects. The Decommissioning Status Report looks at the current status of the now 224 closed nuclear power reactors. Annex 1 provides an overview by region and country of all operating nuclear programs not covered in the focus chapters.

Eighteen interdisciplinary authors based in Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Lithuania, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Türkiye, the UK, and the US, at prestigious academic institutions like the Nagasaki University, University of British Columbia, Technical University of Berlin, and the University of Johannesburg, as well as esteemed foundations such as Bellona and Sasakawa Peace Foundations have contributed to the report, along with senior writers that spent decades at prestigious publications like the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post. The project coordinator, a data engineer, numerous proofreaders, and two artistic designers complete the project team.

The foreword to WNISR2026 was provided by KONO Taro, Member of the House of Representatives and former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan.

You can download the PDF version of the 2026 Report: World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2026PDF – 14.8 MiB Download