A real nuclear renaissance is under way

As I was reading an article [Es] on the expansion of nuclear in China – where 24 reactors are currently being built compared to 12 online to date – I was wondering if a nuclear renaissance is really under way.

To World Nuclear News it seems to be the case as 58 reactors are currently being built in 15 countries around the world. Most reactors currently planned are in Asia, as the economy and the electricity demand increase rapidly.

The capacity of nuclear power plants around the world could reach 511 to 807 GWe by 2030, to be compared to the current 327 GWe. (from +63% to +246%).

Will there be enough Uranium for all these new plants ? To a new report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology there is enough uranium to fuel ten times more reactors than today and this even if they ran for a hundred years.

As I noted previously there is also huge quantities of Uranium in the oceans and technology – fast breeders – could enable us to generate much more electricity from the same quantities of the precious material.

2 thoughts on “A real nuclear renaissance is under way”

  1. Hi Edouard,

    as you can see here: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf01.html
    there is no sign of a nuclear renaissance, it actually shows a slow-down in newly-installed Nuclear capacity.

    About the fast breeders: there are currently no operational fast breeders that can produce electricity on a large scale. This is mostly because of the process residu Plutonium, which doesn’t fit so nicely under the proliferation act as Uranium does 😉

  2. Hi Richard and many thanks for your comment.

    On the link you gave, one can read :

    ” Over 55 further nuclear power reactors are under construction, equivalent to 16% of existing capacity, while over 150 are firmly planned, equivalent to 45% of present capacity. “

    So, YES, the capacity has been recently slowing down for several reasons, but it will increase again.

    On fast breeders you are right in stating that no reactor of this type is producing electricity yet. Technological problems will be solved, we need to.

    Thanks again for your comment ! I look forward to reading from you again

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