Energy supply | The nuclear industry continues to fall behind

A fairly young nuclear power plant is Unit 4 of the Chinese Tianwan nuclear power plant. Photo: dpa/Wang Chun Nuclear power produced more electricity worldwide last year than ever before. This emerges from the “World Nuclear Industry Status Report” (WNISR) presented in Istanbul on Tuesday. However, the current figures only at first glance confirm those who have long been predicting or propagating a renaissance in nuclear energy. In fact, their share of global electricity production has fallen again - to 8.8 percent, the lowest level in around four and a half decades. In 1996 it was around twice as high at 17.5 percent. The reason for the development is the ongoing boom in renewable energies. While the growth in nuclear power was only 1.1 percent, solar energy recorded an increase of 30 percent. The total share of renewables in electricity generation was over a third for the first time in 2025.

The WNISR is considered the most important independent reference on the situation in the global nuclear industry. In its current form, it has been published annually since 2007 by an international team of experts led by energy and nuclear policy analyst Mycle Schneider. More than a dozen authors from various disciplines and countries regularly contribute to the report. It is partly supported by institutional partners and authorities such as the German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management. The foreword to the WNISR 2026 was written by former Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.

According to the report, there were 411 nuclear reactors in operation worldwide as of mid-year. The slight increase of 1.1 percent is entirely attributable to China, where production rose by 7.6 percent. In the rest of the world it fell by 0.2 percent.

In 2025, more reactors were shut down than were brought online. Four reactors went into operation, two in China and one each in India and Russia. However, seven were permanently shut down, three in Belgium, three in Russia, one in Taiwan. As a result, the total installed capacity fell to 369,000 megawatts by the end of 2025, but rose again to 375,000 megawatts by mid-2026, thus reaching a peak.

From 2006 to 2025, 104 new nuclear reactors were brought online and 106 were decommissioned worldwide.

At the time the report went to press, in the summer of this year, 73 more reactors were under construction, ten more than a year earlier and more than at any time since 1987. 37 of them are being built in China alone. Russia, in turn, dominates international business: of the 29 plants under construction by Russian power plant builders, seven are located domestically and 22 are in nine other countries. Outside China and Russia, new construction remains manageable.

According to the WNISR, the longer-term balance is similar: from 2006 to 2025, 104 reactors were brought online and 106 were decommissioned worldwide. In China alone, 53 reactors went online and there were no shutdowns. Outside the People's Republic, the number of reactors fell by 55 and their output by almost 31,000 megawatts. At the same time, the population is aging: the average age of the operating nuclear power plants is almost 33 years, and more than one in three are at least 41 years old.

The authors devote their own focus to the recently much-praised Small Modular Reactors (SMR). The core message about these mini nuclear reactors is clear: the real level of development lags far behind the political promises and media hype. Despite massively increasing government support and billions of dollars in public funding, there is hardly any measurable progress in commercial implementation, according to the report. Even with SMR, development worldwide remains extremely dependent on government subsidies. There are no signs of a marketable, purely private-sector model.

Here too, these are the two countries that are actually testing or operating SMR concepts. China is testing the Linglong One demonstration reactor, while Russia is advancing floating and land-based SMRs. In Canada, construction of a GE-Hitachi reactor began at the Darlington site in 2026. In the USA, large amounts of funding are flowing to companies such as Terra Power from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, X-energy or Kairos Power, but commercial use is still years away. There are also no building permits yet. The EU, in turn, has grandly set itself the goal of having the first SMRs ready for use by the early 2030s - but the authors of the status report strongly doubt the feasibility of this timetable.

This article cost you nothing. We do: for research, printing and technology. We saved on office rent as well as printing and distribution. And we gave up salary. Nevertheless, the calculation doesn't work without you. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year. You pay what you can, in return we keep writing.

No paywall, no small print, just one goal: that nd stays.