The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2024
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2024 (WNISR2024) assesses the status and trends of the international nuclear industry. Earth Track was pleased to have contributed to the report again this year, with the focus chapter Power Firming and Competitive Pressure on Nuclear Energy assessing how solar/wind + storage put increasing competitive pressures on the nuclear sector.
By pulling together a mix of core data on the nuclear sector globally while addressing a handful of complex and important special topics each year, the WNISR has become a critical resource for tracking industry trends, pressures, and risks. As part of its core data review, the analysis provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data, including information on operation, production, fleet age, and construction. The WNISR discusses the status of newbuild programs in existing as well as in potential newcomer nuclear countries; notably in this year's Türkiye Focus which provides critical context to the ongoing construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant. A section is dedicated as well to ambitions and prospects for nuclear deployment in Potential Newcomer Countries in Africa, while Taiwan Focus covers the current situation and implementation of the nuclear phaseout policy.
In addition to the chapter we contributed on power firming, WNISR2024 includes special focus chapters on Nuclear Power vs. Renewable Energy Deployment; developments with Small Modular Reactor (SMR) developments; an analysis of the Russia Nuclear Dependencies of the global nuclear sector with a case study on Russian designed fuel assembly manufacturing; an analysis of the Militarization of Civil Power Plants based on the case study of tritium production for weapons in the United States and its significance for France; and an assessment of Civil-Military Cross-Financing in the U.K. Nuclear Sector discussing how tax- and rate-payers unknowingly subsidize the civil and military nuclear establishments.
The Fukushima Status Report provides an overview of ongoing onsite/offsite challenges of the 2011-disaster. The Decommissioning Status Report looks at the current situation of the now over 210 closed nuclear power reactors, close to one third of all units in the world that have generated electricity at some point. Annex 1 offers an overview by region and country of all operating nuclear programs not covered in the focus chapters.
In addition to this year's report linked to above, Earth Track's contribution on Nuclear Economics and Finance, including a review of fuel chain subsidies around the world, from last year's WNISR can be accessed here.