By South China Morning Post | Created at 2026-08-10 22:05:41 | Updated at 2026-08-10 23:50:50
1 hour ago
When Francois Morin, China director at the World Nuclear Association – a leading international industry body – took a group of foreign nuclear engineers to a Shanghai Electric plant last year, the scale of production caught them off guard.
Heavy machinery, from steam generators to reactor cores, was already assembled and ready for shipment to sites where construction had not even begun. The equipment towered over the delegates, many of whom were accustomed to supply chains back home that produce such components one at a time, if at all.
“It was in this place that they understood how China’s construction capability compared to Western ones,” Morin said.
Despite connecting its first nuclear power plant to the grid in 1991, decades after Western pioneers, China today
is building reactors faster and at lower cost than its peers. Since the end of 2016, it has added 27 operational nuclear units, nearly doubling installed capacity, according to calculations based on official data.
By contrast, the United States – still the global leader in nuclear capacity – added just two new units over the same period, hampered by lengthy delays and financing challenges.
“In terms of continuity in construction experience, China is now the only country in the world that has that,” said Victor Nian, founding co-chairman of the Centre for Strategic Energy and Resources think tank based in Singapore.
Yet, even as nuclear power remains central to Beijing’s green transition, sustaining that breakneck pace over the long term presents new challenges. As prime space for sites grows scarce, the industry is racing to develop next-generation alternatives – and potentially look inland.
