Bullets:
In the latest 5-year plan, China is calling for a 76% increase in nuclear power production by 2030.
The Chinese already are building more nuclear power plants than the rest of the world, combined.
If the goals are achieved, China’s nuclear power production will provide the electricity equivalent of over 80 million American households, and 200 million people.
Chinese engineers seem to have solved the “cost curse” problem, which makes new plant construction prohibitively expensive and time-consuming in North America and Europe. China’s costs to bring online new nuclear capacity is slightly below their costs of twenty years ago.
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Report:
Good morning.
This is a chart of new nuclear reactor construction, by year, since the beginning. The gold bars are China, and green is everyone else. Since 2010, China is starting more nuclear reactors than everyone else.
The Chinese government wants even more finished and online, by 2030. They’re calling for a 76% increase in nuclear power generation by five years from now. The goals set under previous 5-year plans were not achieved:
Bloomberg concludes that the 2030 target may be met if output from plants currently under construction are included.
The goal is 110 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity. One Gigawatt is the power needed for a US city, with a population of about 2 million people. It’s enough to power 750,000 American homes, so 110 gigawatts is equivalent to over 80 million households, or around 200 million people.
The objective is reliable power, 24/7. And in China there is another dynamic at work that is not true of other countries building new nuclear power supply. China is able to build more nuclear plants over time, without corresponding increases in cost. Chinese nuclear power plants just cost less to build and to bring online, than almost anywhere else.
This is a study of historical construction costs, plant-by-plant, from the United States, France, and China. The red dots and cost curve is the United States. The last two plants brought online in the US were in Georgia, Vogtle 3 and 4, and cost $15 per watt. France is in blue, and their latest plant came online at $10 per watt.
Those upwardly sloping lines are what the nuclear power industry calls the “cost curse” problem. Nuclear plants are just progressively more expensive to build, over time. But consider that Chinese construction costs are in green, and cluster around $2 per watt to build and bring online, which is roughly the same—and even slightly lower—than their costs 20 years ago.
Those higher costs and longer construction timelines are what is shutting off the construction of new nuclear plants in North America and Europe. In the UK it does cost less than in the United States, but it’s still nearly 4 times more expensive than China. And there are new Chinese plants coming online at less than $2 per watt.
China has an all-of-the-above approach to energy, and builds out new power sources in anticipation of future demand, instead of in reaction to present demand. So yes, China burns a lot of coal, builds a lot of wind and solar farms, and is building the world’s biggest dam, again. And also new fleets of nuclear power plants.
Be Good.
Resources and links:
Nuclear plants too expensive? China shows low-cost construction possible
https://hub.jhu.edu/2025/07/28/curbing-nuclear-power-plant-costs/
Infrastructure Costs: Nuclear Edition
[Notes on Growth
Infrastructure Costs: Nuclear Edition
Britain used to lead the world in nuclear power. This is the country that split the atom, built the world’s first full-scale nuclear power station, and then proceeded to build nine more in the decade that followed. When Calder Hall was opened, Lord Privy Seal, Richard Butler, noted “It may be that after 1965 every new power station being built will be a…
Read more
2 years ago · 31 likes · 10 comments · Sam Dumitriu and Ben Hopkinson](https://www.samdumitriu.com/p/infrastructure-costs-nuclear-edition)
Cost of nuclear power decreasing for China
https://www.reddit.com/r/Infographics/comments/1r47vas/cost/_of/_nuclear/_energy/_construction/_in/_various/#lightbox
Nuclear Reactor Construction Starts Drop Again in the World
https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/Nuclear-Reactor-Construction-Starts-Drop-Again-in-the-World
China Keeps Pushing Nuclear Power With Ambitious Growth Target
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-09/china-keeps-pushing-nuclear-power-with-ambitious-growth-target
Gigawatt: The Solar Energy Term You Should Know About
https://www.cnet.com/home/solar/gigawatt-the-solar-energy-term-you-should-know-about/
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