Newly released nuclear power data for 2023 collected by the IAEA, paint a picture of a clean energy technology at a crossroads amid the emergence of a new global consensus to accelerate its deployment.
Electricity production from nuclear power rose by 2.6 per cent last year compared to 2022, according to the operating data provided by IAEA Member States to the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) — the IAEA’s comprehensive and publicly available database on nuclear power. Nuclear power continued to generate almost 10 percent of the world’s electricity and a quarter of all low carbon electricity last year, according to the data, which are featured in two newly released annual IAEA publications: Nuclear Power Reactors in the World (RDS-2) and Operating Experience with Nuclear Power Stations in Member States (OPEX).
The USA remained the world’s top producer of nuclear electricity, followed by China and France. China continued to lead in newbuilds, beginning construction on five reactors. Newcomer Egypt started building its second reactor, according to the data, which showed the global fleet operating at nearly full strength with a median capacity factor of 88 per cent. While new grid connections were made at nuclear power plants in Belarus, China, Republic of Korea, Slovakia and the United States of America, reactors were shut down in Belgium, China and Germany.
The 2023 data come against the backdrop of growing global ambitions for nuclear technology amid an aging reactor fleet. More than two-thirds of reactors are at least 30 years old. In December 2023, in the historic first Global Stocktake at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, the 198 signatory countries to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change called for accelerating the deployment of low-emission energy technologies including nuclear power for deep and rapid decarbonization, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors such as industry. In addition, more than 20 countries at COP28 pledged to work towards tripling global nuclear power capacity to reach net zero by 2050.
“IAEA data shows the global fleet of nuclear reactors continues to be a large and indispensable source of low-carbon electricity,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. “But it’s also clear that 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.”
