For two decades after Chernobyl and again after Fukushima, nuclear power was in retreat in much of the West. Since around 2022 the direction has changed: governments are extending reactor lives, building new plants and backing small modular reactors (SMRs).
The global fleet in numbers
| Operable reactors | 441 (404,127 MWe) |
|---|---|
| Under construction | 81 |
| Planned | 122 |
| Proposed | 336 |
| Nuclear generation 2025 | 2,701.5 TWh (~9% of world electricity) |
| Uranium required 2025 | 68,920 tU |
The largest fleets are in the United States (94 operable reactors), China (64), France (57), Russia (34), Japan (33) and South Korea (26). Most new construction is in Asia, led by China.
Where the growth comes from
- China has the largest construction programme in the world and approves around ten new reactors a year.
- Life extensions — many US reactors are licensed to run 60 or even 80 years, and countries such as Belgium, Spain and Switzerland have revisited phase-out plans. Keeping an existing reactor running is the cheapest source of uranium demand growth.
- Restarts — Japan continues to restart reactors idled after 2011, and in the US the Palisades plant and the former Three Mile Island Unit 1 (renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center under a power deal with Microsoft) have been in the process of returning to service.
- New entrants — Bangladesh, Egypt and Turkey are building their first plants, and Poland plans its first large reactors.
- Policy targets — more than 30 countries have endorsed the goal of tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050, and a May 2025 US executive order targets 400 GW of US nuclear capacity by 2050.
Small modular reactors
SMRs are reactors of up to about 300 MWe designed to be factory-built and deployed in series. The first projects in OECD countries have moved into construction — for example Ontario Power Generation’s BWRX-300 at the Darlington site in Canada received its construction licence in April 2025 — and China is building the ACP100 (Linglong One) demonstration SMR on Hainan island. Technology companies including Google, Amazon and Microsoft have signed agreements with SMR developers and existing nuclear operators to power data centres.
For uranium demand, SMRs matter later than large reactors: most will not be operating at scale before the 2030s, and some advanced designs need HALEU (high-assay low-enriched uranium, 5–20% U-235), which requires more enrichment per kilogram of fuel and therefore more natural uranium per unit of fuel.
From reactors to pounds
A typical 1,000 MWe light-water reactor needs very roughly 200 tonnes of U3O8 (about 170 tU) per year at normal enrichment and tails assays, plus an initial core about two to three times an annual reload. Multiply by 81 reactors under construction and a growing list of life extensions and restarts, and it becomes clear why utilities’ uncovered requirements after 2030 are a central theme of the market — see uranium supply and demand.
Risks
- Cost overruns and delays on large Western projects (Vogtle, Hinkley Point C, Flamanville 3).
- Political reversals and public opinion after any serious incident.
- SMR economics are still unproven at commercial scale.
Live charts of uranium miners and ETFs: uranium stocks.
This article is general information, not investment advice. Figures are as of the dates stated and can change.
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