There’s a wealth of new data on global nuclear power generation and development. This week, two important annual reports on the nuclear sector from IAEA and the World Nuclear Association hit the shelves—so to speak—and revealed in new detail how the globe’s atomic power production is going.
All in all, nuclear power generation is up, and that’s a trend we can expect to continue as more reactors get connected to the grid and the uptime and capacity of existing reactors continue to improve.
We won’t leave it at that. Let’s get into the details.
Nuclear Is Growing Despite Setbacks, Finds IAEA
Though a handful of nuclear reactors ended up disconnecting from the grid this year, the improvements in performance and the several new reactors that began supplying power more than made up for the loss. According to IAEA’s 2024 report on the performance of its member states, electricity generation from nuclear plants was up 2.6% compared to the year before.
- The US, China, Belarus, South Korea, and Slovakia connected new reactors to the grid over the last year.
- Germany completed its national nuclear decommissioning movement, and Belgium and Taiwan shut down reactors.
- A total of 418 reactors around the globe operated during 2023, not counting 25 suspended reactors.
IAEA is particularly interested in reactor efficiency and production over the course of the year. In 2023, the global fleet of nuclear reactors had an 88% median capacity factor. The US led the world in fleet efficiency, performing with very high uptime.
“We will need to extend the lives of existing reactors, replace retiring facilities with new ones, and add a lot of new capacity so that global climate change and energy security goals can be reached,” IAEA head Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a release.
+ While we’re here: We’d be remiss not to point you to the IAEA’s complete report, where you can peruse data from every operating nuclear plant under the UN nuclear watchdog’s jurisdiction.
Capacity Drops Can’t Stop Generation Gains, Says WNA
The World Nuclear Association’s findings on net power generation lined up with the IAEA’s, but its findings on capacity conflicted. WNA found that, across the globe, the average capacity factor of nuclear reactors hit 81.5%. That’s 1.1 percentage points higher than last year.
That high performance led to a small uptick in global production of nuclear power from the year before, but still less than 2021’s output. Nuclear reactors supplied upwards of 2,600 TWh of power across the globe in 2023, which makes up ~9% of global power production.
“A significant increase in new nuclear construction is necessary if the tripling goal is to be achieved,” World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León said in a statement, referring to the COP28 promise to 3x nuclear capacity globally by 2050. “This level of construction depends on the nuclear industry rising above the financing, supply chain and regulatory challenges faced by new projects, particularly in the Western world.”
Lead Reporter of Ignition
