We often worry that if we don't build more nuclear power quickly, China might take the lead. In reality, we are ~20 years behind, with 0 workhorse reactors under construction and 0 operational non-water reactors, meanwhile, China has 28 huge power reactors under construction now
Besides utterly dominating in power reactor construction, China is killing it in advanced reactor development, across the board. In 2023, they turned on the first thorium-containing fluid fuel molten salt reactor since 1969. https://x.com/whatisnuclear/st...
For high temperature gas, they recently turned on their HTR-PM based on many years of operational learning from their HTR-10, and are now far along in building not 1, but 2 6-packs of modular HTR-PM600s with shared equipment! https://x.com/realTZV/status/1...
In sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor land, they turned on their first 600 MWe CFR-600 back in 2023 (based on operational experience from their smaller operational SFR, CEFR) and are expected to turn the second one on next year. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1...
Let's not forget the world's most powerful crane ever, now being used to mass produce huge power reactors in China. https://x.com/realTZV/status/1...
As a nuclear industry person looking at this, it's truly astounding how far behind we've already fallen. We do have numerous micro, small, and medium nuclear builds planned and some even moving dirt around. But seeing the mass-production of large reactors and systematic step-wise development of advanced technology in China is really humbling and impressive.