The potential for a power plant to generate electricity is measured by its nameplate capacity, or simply capacity, which is the rate of electricity generation at continuous full power measured in watts. In 2024, about 440 nuclear power reactors were operating in 32 countries plus Taiwan with a combined capacity of about 390 gigawatts (GW) that supplied about 10% of the world’s electricity.1
Nuclear generation capacity is highly concentrated. Five countries (United States, Russia, France, Japan, South Korea, and China) account for 36% of global capacity. Most new capacity additions are in Asian countries such as China and India.
The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Russia were the leaders in early capacity additions in the 1960s, embracing the perceived promise of peaceful application of nuclear energy in the early post-World War II era. Capacity additions accelerated in the United States, Japan, Russia, and several European countries in the 1970s and 1980s. New capacity rapidly declined after that due to the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, rising costs, public opposition, and the increasing attractiveness and economic viability of renewable power generation.
Individual country profiles reveal informative details about the dynamics of nuclear power. The French priority of reducing dependence on expensive and imported fossil fuels is reflected in the rapid addition of capacity in the 1980s.2 Germany was an early leader in nuclear power but rapidly abandoned new investments in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. In recent decades South Korea, India, Russia, and especially China account for most new capacity additions, although overall additions remain far below their historic maximums.
1 World Nuclear Association, “Plans For New Reactors Worldwide,” June 27, 2024, https://tinyurl.com/2s3u42wz
2 Fontaine, Antoine. “Heating France with Nuclear Power: Alternative Heat Politics and Competing Nuclear Regimes during the 1970s.” Journal of Historical Geography 73 (July 1, 2021): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2021.05.002
