Preface to World Nuclear Performance Report 2024

In 2023, the global nuclear fleet continued its excellent performance. Nuclear generation supplied more than 2600 TWh, up 58 TWh from 2022, and generating 9% of the world's electricity. This increase was partly due to the return to service of French reactors after extended outages, contributing an additional 42 TWh. The increase in generation is despite a 1 GWe drop in overall capacity, to 392 GWe, of operable nuclear power plants.

The average capacity factor of nuclear reactors increased by 1%, reaching 81.5% in 2023, highlighting the reliability delivered by nuclear energy to the grid. Nuclear energy remains the most reliable means of supplying clean energy to the grid. Nuclear reactors have consistently achieved over 80% capacity factors for the past 20 years.
Nuclear reactors helped avoid 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2023 from equivalent coal generation - that's more than the annual emissions of almost every individual country, with only China, India, and the USA having higher national CO2 emissions.

This edition of the World Nuclear Performance Report continues the trend of analyzing generation by the ages of nuclear reactors in each country, showing the excellent performance of nuclear reactors, regardless of age. The case studies illustrate ongoing efforts to generate more electricity from the nuclear fleet, including Holtec’s work to return Palisades in the USA to service, KHNP’s extension of the operating lifetimes of 10 units in South Korea, and ČEZ’s uprating of the power output at the Dukovany and Temelin plants in Czechia.

However, lifetime extensions or restarting shuttered reactors are not substitutes for new builds, particularly as global energy demand continues to rise. At the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, UAE, in December 2023, 25 countries signed a declaration with the goal of tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. Achieving this goal will require a significant increase in new nuclear construction.

In 2023, five reactors were shut down, while five reactors were connected to the grid across a diverse set of countries: one each in China, Slovakia, the USA, Belarus, and South Korea. Vogtle 3, the first nuclear power plant to start and complete construction in more than 40 years in the USA, was connected to the grid and began serving customers in 2023, with Vogtle 4 following this year.

Five out of a total of six new construction starts in 2023 were in China, with the other being in Egypt. In Asia, there has been a sustained and significant increase in nuclear generation over the last decade. Of the total 64 reactors under construction today, more than two-thirds are in Asia, with 30 reactors under construction in China alone. Eastern Europe and Russia are second to Asia in terms of the number of units under construction.

While more concerted efforts are needed to rapidly increase carbon-free generation to meet global decarbonization goals, nuclear energy is now being recognized across an ever-growing number of countries as a reliable answer to the world’s demand for clean, secure and affordable energy.

Sama Bilbao y León
Director General
World Nuclear Association