ASIA In 2021, 6 new nuclear power plants started up in Asia; there are 36 under construction

At the end of last year, of the 53 new nuclear power plant projects, most were in Asia. It takes less and less time to build a reactor. The growth, driven by China, followed by India, Japan and South Korea.

Milan () – The Covid-19 pandemic and, even more so, the war in Ukraine, have caused a return to the consumption of fossil fuels for energy production, especially in Europe. In Asia, on the other hand, more and more nuclear power plants are being built, and in ever shorter times.

He confirms it World Nuclear Performance Report, according to which nuclear reactors generated a total of 2,653 TWh (terawatt hours) in 2021, which represents an increase of 100 TWh compared to 2020. While the trend is downward in Europe and the United States, Asia is very close to reach Western nuclear power generation levels (see photo 2). After a significant decline after the triple Fukushima disaster in 2011, growth has been very fast, driven mainly by China and India.

Most of the reactors are pressurized water reactors (PWR) and between 2017 and 2021, 33 were commissioned worldwide. On the other hand, at the end of last year there were 53 reactors under construction, 36 in Asia. Of the projects started in 2021, six are in China, two in India, one in Russia and one in Turkey. In the first part of 2022, the construction of another three reactors in China began, while of the five that have been connected to the grid, four are in Asia and one in Finland.

If the trend continues as before, the construction of the new plants could take less than five years. It took nearly 10 years to commission India’s Kakrapar 3 reactor, which began construction in late 2010. However, China’s Tianwan 6, which began construction in 2016, only took 56 months (see photo 2). .

Once the construction of a reactor is finished, it must be connected to the network: in 2021, six reactors will be connected, including the one in Shandong, China, which has special characteristics that could be imitated on a larger scale. The average construction time for grid-connected reactors in 2021 was 88 months.

In China, power output from nuclear reactors reached almost 400 TWh in 2021 with 54 reactors in operation and 20 under construction. The situation is the opposite in Taiwan, where nuclear energy is in decline because in 2016 the island promised to close all the plants before 2025. Last year, a referendum confirmed the popular will not to proceed with the rehabilitation and construction of nuclear power plants. existing sites.

Of the six units that Pakistan has, two have been supplied by China, which has allowed Islamabad to double its energy production.

India is the other country driving nuclear growth in Asia, with 23 operating reactors spread across seven plants. The Kudankulam site is a long-term project between Delhi and Moscow. For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron recently assured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his support in the construction of six new units in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, which will generate power for 70 million homes.

A Russian-designed two-unit plant is under construction in Bangladesh. It should start operating in 2023 or 2024 and will cover 9% of the country’s electricity needs.

In Japan, all of the country’s nuclear power plants were shut down after 2011 and had to get new government approval before they could be restarted. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has declared his intention to increase electricity production from nuclear power, and investments have been made in the development of new technologies, such as sodium-cooled fast reactors.

In South Korea, the country’s 25 reactors cover a third of the nation’s energy needs, and new President Yoon Suk-yeol, elected in March this year, has refused to rule out electricity production from nuclear power. , as his predecessor Moon Jae-in had done, so that in 2025 the construction of an old plant, paralyzed in 2017, will resume. According to a survey carried out in September 2021 by the South Korean Nuclear Society, 72% of those surveyed – only 1,000 people – were in favor of nuclear power.