Key points
- The United States has cancelled plans for 172 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity, more than of all its operating, retired or prospective capacity combined (130 GW)
- Globally more nuclear power has been cancelled (524 GW) than what is currently in operation (387 GW).
More nuclear capacity has been cancelled in the United States than has ever come online or is slated to come online given current plans, find new data from Global Energy Monitor.
Data from the Global Nuclear Power Tracker show the U.S. has cancelled plans for 172 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity, beginning in 1964 with the cancellation of units at Ravenswood in New York. The U.S.’ current operating, retired and prospective capacity — projects that have been announced or are in the pre-construction or construction phases — totals 130 GW.
This pattern follows a trend worldwide, as more nuclear power has been cancelled (524 GW) than what is currently in operation (387 GW). The top five counties cancelling nuclear capacity are: 1. China (192.3 GW), 2. United States (172.0 GW), 3. Russia (32.8 GW), Ukraine (13.8 GW), and 5. Japan (10.8 GW).
In a first for industry datasets, the Global Nuclear Power Tracker now tracks such cancelled capacity, which other datasets do not offer. This update to the Global Nuclear Power Tracker has also grown the dataset by nearly half, adding 440 GW for a global coverage of 1355 GW in total nuclear capacity.
Joe Bernardi, Project Manager for the Global Nuclear Power Tracker, said, “Much has been made of Vogtle 3 becoming the first nuclear project in the U.S. to come online in seven years when it started up this summer. But the U.S. would need to add the equivalent of 56 Vogtle 3 units at a cost of nearly one trillion dollars to close the gap between operating and cancelled nuclear capacity. The reality is that the majority of nuclear power in the history of the U.S. has never come online.”
