Nuclear power plants operate in 31 countries and generate about a tenth of the world's electricity. Most are in Europe, North America and East Asia. The United States is the largest producer of nuclear power, while France has the largest share of electricity generated by nuclear power, at about 65%.

Some countries operated nuclear reactors in the past but currently have no operating nuclear power plants. Among them, Italy closed all of its nuclear stations by 1990 and nuclear power has since been discontinued because of the 1987 referendums. Lithuania closed its RBMK reactor type nuclear station in 2009 for safety reasons. Kazakhstan phased out nuclear power in June 1999 but is planning to reintroduce it possibly by 2035 under referendum. Germany operated nuclear plants since 1960 until the completion of its phaseout policy in 2023. Taiwan completed its phaseout policy in 2025. Austria (Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant) and the Philippines (Bataan Nuclear Power Plant) both built a nuclear plant but never put it in use.

Sweden and Belgium originally had phase-out policies however they have now moved away from their original plans. The Philippines relaunched their nuclear programme on February 28, 2022, and may try to operate the 1984 mothballed Bataan Plant.

As of 2020, Poland was in advanced planning phase for 1.5 GW and planned to have up to 9 GW by 2040. Hong Kong has no nuclear power plants within its boundary, but imports 80% of the electricity generated from Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station located across the border, in which the power company of the territory holds stake. In 2021, Iraq declared it was planning to build 8 nuclear reactors by 2030 to supply up to 25% electric power in a grid that was suffering from shortages.

Overview

Of the 31 countries in which nuclear power plants operate, only France, Slovakia, Belgium and Ukraine use them as the source for a majority of the country's electricity supply as of 2026. Other countries have significant amounts of nuclear power generation capacity. By far the largest nuclear electricity producers are the United States with 781,945 GWh of nuclear electricity in 2026, followed by China with 467,019 GWh. As of August 2026, 427 reactors with a net capacity of 376,261 MWe were operational, and 72 reactors with net capacity of 66,190 MWe were under construction. Of the reactors under construction, 38 reactors with 39,694 MWe were in China.

+ Nuclear power by country Country Reactors Capacity(MW) Generation(GWh) % total Capacityfactor Notes In use Suspended Being built 427 23 72 379,000 2,617,530 8.5% 84.6% 94 0 0 96,952 781,945 18.2% 92.5% 64 0 38 63,985 467,019 4.82% 93.11% 57 0 0 63,000 364,390 67.3% 74.2% 37 0 4 27,727 202,104 17.8% 85.3% 26 0 2 25,609 179,407 31.7% 79.6% 20 4 6 6,920 49,910 3.3% 84.4% 19 0 1 13,744 81,156 13.4% 68.2% 15 18 2 31,679 84,887 10.0% 33.0% 15 0 2 13,107 81,126 55.0% 71.0% 9 0 2 5,883 37,295 12.3% 72.7% 7 0 0 7,123 52,129 19.9% 88.5% 6 0 0 7,008 48,697 29.1% 82.5% 6 1 2 3,262 22,783 16.7% 86.4% 6 0 0 3,963 28,049 40.2% 81.4% 5 0 1 2,302 16,958 60.6% 87.8% 5 0 0 3,908 29,732 57.3% 86.9% 5 0 0 4,369 31,128 39.1% 84.1% 4 0 0 1,916 15,163 47.1% 90.6% 4 0 0 2,973 23,033 28.6% 89.3% 4 0 0 5,348 36,504 21.8% 89.5% 3 0 1 1,641 10,449 7.4% 72.5% 2 0 1 1,884 14,862 2.3% 89.7% 2 0 0 2,220 14,735 36.3% 77.0% 2 0 0 2,006 15,110 41.6% 85.1% 2 0 0 1,552 11,978 4.8% 90.8% 2 0 0 1,300 10,044 19.8% 90.7% 2 0 0 1,854 7,835 3.9% 47.6% 1 0 1 915 6,439 1.7% 78.7% 1 0 0 482 3,385 2.8% 80.3% 1 0 0 416 2,629 30.8% 72.5% 1 0 0 696 5,551 35.0% 91.1% 0 0 4 4,400 0 0 4 4,456 0 0 2 2,160

See also List of commercial nuclear reactors List of countries by uranium reserves List of nuclear power accidents by country List of nuclear power stations Nuclear energy policy by country World Nuclear Industry Status Report

Notes

References

External links World Nuclear Generation and Capacity