5 ms·

China is building nuclear reactors faster than any other country. At the moment, they have 21 new reactors under construction.

MyFirstSass 3y ago
Interesting. 21 doesn't seem like much compared to the 300+ there's been in US, 330 in China, 170 in EU etc, until you see theres zero retired units in china compared to large amounts in the rest of the world. Still though. 21 seems to indicate they are actually betting on something else. https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-nuclear-power-tracker/tracker-map/ https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-nuclear-powe...
- resolutebat 3y ago
  China is betting on all the things at once: they're the world leader in building out new solar, new wind, new nuclear and new coal power simultaneously.
- tzs 3y ago
  They also say they are going to approve 6 to 8 more per year indefinitely.
aurelwu 3y ago
21 reactors under construction even with a short build time of 7 years is just 3 finished per year, and with China having ~15x the population of Germany that would amount to 0,2 reactors finishing per year in Germany. Multiplied with 1,4 GW that would add ~0,3 GW capacity resulting in about 2,5 TWh additional electricity generated per year which is 0,5% of annual current german demand. Do that for 20 years and you'd be at 10% of current electricity demand or about 5-7% of the demand in 20 years from now - or in other words micro-optimisation.
- Turing_Machine 3y ago
  > 21 reactors under construction even with a short build time of 7 years is just 3 finished per year Only if you start building them and then stop. If you keep building them at that rate, after 7 years it becomes 21 coming on line every year, not 3.
- mpweiher 3y ago
  While they are currently building 22, they have a further more than 70 planned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_China

MyFirstSass 3y ago

Interesting. 21 doesn't seem like much compared to the 300+ there's been in US, 330 in China, 170 in EU etc, until you see theres zero retired units in china compared to large amounts in the rest of the world. Still though. 21 seems to indicate they are actually betting on something else. https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-nuclear-power-tracker/tracker-map/ https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-nuclear-powe...

resolutebat 3y ago
China is betting on all the things at once: they're the world leader in building out new solar, new wind, new nuclear and new coal power simultaneously.
tzs 3y ago
They also say they are going to approve 6 to 8 more per year indefinitely.

aurelwu 3y ago

21 reactors under construction even with a short build time of 7 years is just 3 finished per year, and with China having ~15x the population of Germany that would amount to 0,2 reactors finishing per year in Germany. Multiplied with 1,4 GW that would add ~0,3 GW capacity resulting in about 2,5 TWh additional electricity generated per year which is 0,5% of annual current german demand. Do that for 20 years and you'd be at 10% of current electricity demand or about 5-7% of the demand in 20 years from now - or in other words micro-optimisation.

Turing_Machine 3y ago
> 21 reactors under construction even with a short build time of 7 years is just 3 finished per year Only if you start building them and then stop. If you keep building them at that rate, after 7 years it becomes 21 coming on line every year, not 3.
mpweiher 3y ago
While they are currently building 22, they have a further more than 70 planned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_China