written 11 October, 2026
published 18 October, 2026
According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2026, there are currently 411 nuclear reactors in operation around the globe, with 93 in the U.S. The nuclear share of electrical power produced globally peaked in 1996 at 18 percent, falling to 9 percent last year. There is no indication this decline will end any time soon.
All these reactors are considered standard large reactors, built one at a time, at great expense, with long construction time frames. While newer reactors trend toward 1,100 megawatts (MW) of capacity, the fleet average is 900MW, which operate at 83 percent capacity each year, due to maintenance, repairs, and refueling.
The average operational life of a large reactor is 44 years. The intense radiation, over years of operation, makes metals increasingly brittle, more prone to structural failure, and turns the entire reactor structure radioactive, not just the fuel. The global fleet average age is 33 years, with one third (137 reactors) already over 40 years old. Since the U.S. was the first into nuclear reactor construction, our fleet now averages over 45 years old, meaning about 46 reactors are ready to be replaced. However, no new domestic reactors are under construction, and only 10 are proposed to begin construction before 2030. Even if these actually happen, it won't be enough to cover replacement of retiring older units, let alone increase the nuclear share of power produced.
Historically, construction times for a standard 1,100MW unit averages more than a decade, and costs average $18B on up, but the industry has a record of running over schedule and over budget. To date, no large domestic reactor has ever been completely decommissioned, demolished, and the site returned to what is called "green field" status, suitable for any kind of new usage. In addition, the 92,000 tons (and growing) of domestic highly radioactive "spent fuel" has never been stored in a biologically safe, geological repository. Therefore, the true costs of nuclear power have yet to be accounted.
The current AI frenzy demands an immediate, and massive, increase in electrical power production, which construction of conventional nuclear cannot deliver. In response, the nuclear industry's new hope is small modular reactors (SMR), defined as "modular factory-line construction, with capacity less than 300MW". The promise is these will be much cheaper to mass produce in a factory setting, and be quicker to install.
However, for such a system to be profitable, it will require production of a single design, in qualities of at least a thousand. Unfortunately, no true SMR, as defined above, is operating today, and none are under construction. Single prototypes of two different designs are operating, and five more, of three different designs, are under construction. True SMR production will take a decade or two, if at all.
In contrast to hypothetical nuclear promises, the planet added 2,000MW of new renewable capacity every day in 2025, out pacing the growth in nuclear power by a factor of 450:1. Even the U.S., despite our president's war on renewables, added 140MW of new renewable capacity each day.
Global solar and wind combined generated more electricity than nuclear for the first time in 2021. By 2025, global solar and wind generated twice as much power as nuclear. Solar power alone out-generated nuclear and wind power will out-generate nuclear in the next year or two. Today, the cheapest and quickest grid scale power to install is solar with storage, and the costs continue to drop, because as mass production scales up, costs decline.
But America is rapidly falling behind, retarded by presidential decree. Perhaps it is just his whim, or perhaps the billionaires invested in fossil fuels and nuclear have bought presidential attention for the moment. With hundreds of billion invested, nuclear is some of the most expensive power on the grid, but massively profitable for the owners, and the consumers pay the bills.
This administration has been described as a "coin operated system", where wealthy doners getting favors from the government that generate healthy gains for the few. While such corruption is not unique to this president, he has demonstrated an unusual, and blatant, flair. Unfortunately, as long as his administration prevails in Washington, we all pay the price.
This election may change things, but I think the frenzy underlying the AI bubble, which is helping to drive the nuclear resurgence, will soon burst, bringing an electrical power realignment, as well as an economic and political one.
In the meantime, please vote!
