Nuclear power data for 2023, collected by the IAEA, has been released in two new annual publications: Nuclear Power Reactors in the World (RDS-2) and Operating Experience with Nuclear Power Stations in Member States (OPEX).
Electricity production from nuclear power rose by 2.6% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to the operating data provided by member states to IAEA’s comprehensive and publicly available database, the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS). Nuclear power continued to generate almost 10% of the world’s electricity and a quarter of all low carbon electricity last year, according to the data
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%. 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 ageing reactor fleet. More than two-thirds of reactors are at least 30 years old. In December 2023, 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 deployment of low-emission energy technologies including nuclear for rapid decarbonisation, 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.”
As of the end of December 2023, global operational nuclear power capacity was 371.5 GWe, provided by 413 reactors in 31 countries. However, only 403 reactors, with a combined capacity of 364.5 GWe, reported their electricity production to the IAEA. Twenty-five reactors remained in suspended operations throughout the year, despite being licenced for operation. This includes four reactors in India with a combined net capacity of 639 MWe and 21 in Japan with a combined net capacity of around 21 000 MWe. Japan restarted two reactors in 2023, Takahama-1 and Takahama-2, which had been in suspended operation since 2011.
Nuclear power capacity has remained at a consistent level over the past decade, with an additional 69.8 GWe nuclear capacity connected to the grid since the beginning of 2013. Over 79% of this capacity growth occurred in Asia. China is still the fastest expanding nuclear power producer of the world, the reports on nuclear power reactors and operating experience show. China currently has 56 nuclear power reactors in operation and a further 27 under construction.
The annual OPEX report underscores the IAEA’s long-standing commitment as custodian of the only officially collected and maintained data relating to nuclear power operating experience. As in previous years, the 55th edition of the report includes annual performance data, outage information, and statistical information on electricity production and the overall performance of individual NPPs that were operational in 2023. In addition to annual information, this extensive 1518-page report contains a historical summary of performance during the lifetime of individual plants and figures illustrating worldwide performance of the nuclear industry. The design characteristics and dashboards of all operational nuclear power plants worldwide are also included.
The 100-page Nuclear Power Reactors in the World (RDS-2) is one of the IAEA’s most popular annual publications. It contains a summary of recent specification and performance data on nuclear reactors in IAEA member states and technical data on reactors that are either planned, under construction, operational or that were shut down or decommissioned.
Both publications are entirely based on data submitted to IAEA by officially nominated national data providers and maintained in the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS), the world’s only authoritative and most comprehensive database on nuclear power.
