Nuclear energy is having a global revival 40 years after Chernobyl

The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 fueled global fears about nuclear power and slowed its development in Europe and elsewhere. Four decades later, however, there is a worldwide revival, a trend that was greatly spurred by the war in the Middle East.

More than 400 nuclear reactors are operational in 31 countries, while around 70 more are under construction. Nuclear power accounts for about 10% of the world’s electricity, or about a quarter of all low-carbon energy sources.

Nuclear reactors have seen constant improvements, adding more safety features and making them cheaper to build and operate.

While Chernobyl and Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 diminished the appetite for such energy sources, it was clear years ago that there would likely be a renaissance, said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

With the war in the Middle East, “I am 100% sure that nuclear power will come back,” he added.

“It is considered a secure electricity production system, and we will see that the comeback of nuclear will be very strong, both in America and in Europe and Asia,” Birol told the Associated Press.

The United States is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power, with 94 operational reactors accounting for approximately 30% of global nuclear electricity generation. And it is stepping up efforts to develop nuclear energy capacity with the aim of quadrupling it by 2050.

“The world cannot power its industries, meet the demands of artificial intelligence, or secure its energy future without nuclear power,” US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas DiNanno said last month.

China operates 61 nuclear reactors and is the world leader in building new units, with nearly 40 under construction in a bid to overtake the United States and become the world leader in nuclear capacity.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged that cutting nuclear power had been a “strategic mistake” by Europe and outlined new initiatives to encourage the construction of power plants.

Russia, for its part, has taken the lead in exporting its nuclear know-how, building 20 reactors around the world.

Chernobyl Reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. The accident contaminated nearby areas and released radiation throughout Europe.

Ukraine still relies heavily on nuclear power plants to produce about half of its electricity. These plants played a critical role after Russian troops were sent to Ukraine in 2022. Moscow’s forces captured Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and kyiv accused Russia of a drone attack on the protective containment structure covering the damaged Chernobyl reactor.

Japan has restarted 15 reactors after learning from the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima plant, and 10 more are in the process of getting approval to restart.

South Africa has the only nuclear power plant on the African continent, although Russia is building one in Egypt and several other African countries are exploring the technology.

“The momentum we are seeing today is the result of a growing recognition that reliable, low-carbon electricity will be essential to meeting growing global energy demands,” said Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Europe sought to wean itself off Russian energy after the Ukraine conflict, but its dependence on hydrocarbons was underlined by the war in the Middle East.

The European Commission has changed its perception of nuclear energy and considers it part of clean energy, along with wind and solar energy, to achieve climate objectives.

In 1990, nuclear power accounted for about a third of European electricity; today that figure is only about 15 percent, and von der Leyen has acknowledged that her reliance on imported fossil fuels puts her at a disadvantage.

“I think Europe has made a strategic mistake by turning its back on a reliable, affordable, low-emission energy source,” she said recently. “In recent years, we are witnessing a global renaissance of nuclear energy. And Europe wants to be part of it.”

The EU is considering the development of small modular reactors. Expected to be operational in the early 2030s, they are considered cheaper, faster to build and more flexible than traditional reactors.

France and a few other EU members, including Sweden and Finland, have spearheaded nuclear power. On the other hand, Germany, Austria and Italy are among the EU members that have banned its use.

In a major political reversal last year, Belgium repealed a law requiring the closure of its reactors and extending their lifespan. Spain, meanwhile, still plans to phase out its nuclear capacity and close its seven operational reactors between 2027 and 2035.

With 57 reactors spread across 19 power plants, France depends on nuclear energy for nearly 70% of its electricity.

Successive governments have supported nuclear power as essential to France’s energy independence, undeterred by the Chernobyl disaster. In 2022, President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to build six new pressurized water reactors, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support the transition to low-carbon energy.

The Covid-19 pandemic, combined with the gas supply crisis triggered by the conflict in Ukraine, “revealed the limits of renewable electricity deployment and Europe’s dependence on gas”, said Nicolas Goldberg, partner at Paris-based Colombus Consulting.

“France is therefore strengthened in its strategy of maintaining its existing nuclear power plants, which involves extending their lifespan as much as possible,” he declared.

Decades of anti-nuclear protests in Germany, fueled by past accidents, have pushed successive governments to stop using technology that critics saw as dangerous and unsustainable. Germany shut down its last three nuclear reactors in 2023, the final step in plans drawn up by governments of various political stripes over two decades.

A significant nuclear renaissance in Europe’s largest economy still seems unlikely, despite recent talk by some members of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right bloc about opening up to a possible future generation of small modular reactors.

“The decision is irreversible, I regret it, but it is what it is,” Merz said, noting that “the constant response from the plant operators was: ‘We are too far from demolition.’”

Russia has aggressively developed its nuclear capacity, both domestically and internationally.

It has 34 operational reactors, including eight Chernobyl-type RBMK reactors, known as light water graphite reactors, which account for about a quarter of all nuclear power generation. They have undergone significant modernization, adding safety features to correct the inherent design flaw that, coupled with human error, triggered the Chernobyl disaster.

The main projects under construction include new units at the Kursk, Leningrad and Smolensk sites, a future power plant in the Far East and potential floating nuclear units.

Russia is also building 20 reactors in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East and has signed contracts to start construction in several other countries.

Russia built the first nuclear reactor for its neighboring ally, Belarus, a third of whose territory was contaminated by the Chernobyl accident.

“The Belarusian authorities are using context change and the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ to pretend that we are acting like everyone else in the world, rather than solving the problems of Belarusians in the contaminated territories,” said Irina Sukhiy, founder of the Belarusian environmental group Green Network.

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John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.