A new report by the EnergyScience Coalition corrects false claims by the federal Coalition and others that 'the world is going nuclear'.
Co-authors Assoc. Prof. Darrin Durant, Prof. Jim Falk and Dr. Jim Green note that:
- The number of operating power reactors worldwide has fallen to 411, which is 27 fewer than the peak of 438 reactors in 2002.
- In 2024 there were 666 gigawatts (GW) of global renewable power additions compared to nuclear growth of 4 gigawatts, a ratio of 155:1. In China the ratio was 100:1.
- Nuclear power's contribution to global electricity production fell to 9.15 percent last year, barely half of its peak of 17.5 percent in 1996. Conversely, the International Energy Agency expects renewables to jump sharply from 30 percent of global electricity generation in 2023 to 46 percent in 2030.
- Global nuclear power capacity is no greater than it was 20 years ago.
- Of the 32 countries operating power reactors, less than one-third (10) are building new reactors.
- The number of countries building nuclear power reactors fell from 15 to 13 last year. Seven percent of the world's countries are building reactors; 93 percent are not.
- The number of potential nuclear 'newcomer' countries with reactor approvals secured and funding in place, or construction underway, is just three and those projects are all heavily funded by the Russian state.
- The 'small modular reactor' sector continues to go nowhere with setbacks in 2024 including the suspension of the Nuward project in France and the bankruptcy of US company Ultra Safe Nuclear.
Report co-author Prof. Jim Falk said: "Reactor construction projects in countries with vast expertise and experience ‒ such as France, the US and the UK ‒ have run literally tens of billions of dollars over-budget and construction schedules have slipped by many years. Since those countries have failed to build reactors on-time and on-budget, it would be naïve to believe that a nuclear 'newcomer' country such as Australia could do so."
Co-author Dr. Jim Green said: "This report provides a factual rebuttal to the pro-nuclear disinformation campaign currently underway in Australia. Simple facts are ignored by the nuclear lobby, such as the fact that there has been zero growth in nuclear power over the past 20 years and the number of countries operating reactors is the same as it was in the late 1990s."
The report, titled 'Nuclear Power's Global Stagnation and Decline', is co-authored by Assoc. Prof. Darrin Durant (Associate Professor in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Melbourne), Prof. Jim Falk (Professorial Fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne; Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong) and Dr. Jim Green (President of Friends of the Earth Australia and a member of the Nuclear Consulting Group). The report is online at http://energyscience.org.au/BP2025-1-NUCLEAR%20POWER-FormattedN2.pdf
