Nuclear power has a renewed and geopolitical appeal

As a result, the global number of nuclear plants has been stagnating for decades. By contrast, solar capacity increased 40-fold between 2010 and 2023, and wind power rose by a factor of six. But a nuclear energy race is now on, with Russia leading the way.

Its state-owned giant Rosatom is overseeing about 40% of the 70 nuclear reactors under construction around the world, focusing on eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It has also cornered the market in enriched uranium, the fuel nuclear reactors run on, with 45% of global capacity.

Exporting nuclear technology is an important source of income for Russia: Rosatom held orders worth $200bn at the start of 2023, according to the Energy Innovation Reform Project, a US nonprofit. It is also savvy diplomacy for the Kremlin.

In addition to building the plants, Russia runs and maintains them and sometimes takes away the nuclear waste they produce – a complete package deal that can secure a country in Russia’s orbit for up to a century.

“For them, it’s a great geopolitical handshake,” said Richard Ollington at the Radiant Energy Group, an advisory company.

If Russia is the Coca-Cola of nuclear power, then China is the Pepsi, according to the Henry Jackson Society thinktank. In 1993, China had practically no nuclear capacity. Today, it operates 58 reactors and is building another 31. Last month, Beijing announced plans for 10 more. Unlike Russia, most of its construction is domestic.

The US is playing catch-up. It has 94 operational reactors but has not built a new one since 1973, after a boom in the 1960s. This is a hangover of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, when a plant in Pennsylvania started releasing radioactive gas. Orders for 120 new reactors were cancelled and several existing ones were shut down.

It also stopped enriching uranium in the 1990s and started buying it from Russia, part of the detente after the Soviet Union collapsed. After Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the US banned Russian imports in 2023 but is giving waivers until 2028 for reactors that have not a new supply.

France is the biggest user of the technology on the continent, while Germany, its biggest sceptic, has dropped its longstanding opposition to nuclear power being included in EU legislation on renewables.

The mood music is changing, even if nuclear still represents a fraction of the global energy mix, providing 3.7% in 2023 compared with oil, coal and gas’s 70%. For Europe, the technology is not just an attractive supplement to solar and wind – it represents a way to wean itself off Russian oil and gas. “Public support is higher the closer your country is to Moscow, because they know the importance of energy security,” said Ollington. “Also, they saw how Ukraine managed to keep the lights on even as its nuclear plants were targeted. These things are built to last.”

Photograph: Alamy