Nuclear Power

Nuclear power has always been controversial, but the debate perhaps has never been so polarized. One camp argues that the planet needs it more than ever and champions the rapid expansion of capacity in countries such as China and India. The other side says now’s the time to get rid of nuclear energy and celebrates the shuttering of reactors in the U.S. and Europe. It’s a collision between concerns over global warming — which give nuclear power appeal as carbon-free energy — and anxieties about safety, which were heightened by three reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima plant in northern Japan after an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Nuclear energy produces about 10% of the world’s electricity, down from a peak of 18% in the mid-1990s. Operating nuclear reactors number 440 today. The 50 or so more under construction would provide the equivalent of 15% of current nuclear capacity, not enough to make up for the 25% set to be shut down in advanced economies by 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. After the Fukushima disaster, which caused one death from radiation exposure and thousands indirectly from the stress of the resulting turmoil, Germany closed its eight oldest reactors and planned to shutter the remaining nine by 2022. In the U.K., where almost a fifth of electricity comes from reactors, about half of current capacity is expected to be retired by 2025, and the government has pared back ambitious plans for new construction. California officials in 2018 became the latest in the U.S. to decide to decommission a plant, approving the closure of the Diablo Canyon facility beginning in 2024. Meanwhile, of the new capacity planned globally, 29% is for China and India, which rely on nuclear energy for 5% and 2% of their electricity, respectively. Choked by air pollution and aiming to become carbon neutral by 2060, China generated 18% more electricity from nuclear energy in 2019 compared with 2018. India aims to boost its capacity more than threefold in 10 years. For its part, Japan shut down all 42 of its commercial reactors within two years of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami because of damage or for checks. In 2015, it began the slow process of restarting the 33 units deemed operable; three were online in late 2020.