The Nuclear Surge in Asia: Why Two Countries Account for 80% of New Reactor Construction
The global nuclear renaissance is not unfolding where Western policymakers are watching. According to the International Energy Agency’s Global Energy Review 2026, ten new reactor construction starts were recorded worldwide in 2025 — nine in China and one in Russia — with zero starts across Europe or North America. Over the past decade, 94 percent of all new reactor construction used Chinese or Russian designs, representing a fundamental restructuring of the global nuclear industrial order. This documentary examines the geopolitical and techno-economic architecture of Asia’s nuclear surge. We analyze how China’s 62 operating reactors and 33 units under construction represent approximately 50 percent of global nuclear capacity currently being built, driven by the indigenized Hualong One pressurized water reactor — now the world’s most widely deployed single reactor design at 41 units — produced at $2 per watt versus $15 per watt in the United States. We investigate how state-backed financing at 1.4 percent interest creates an insurmountable export price advantage, how China’s Belt and Road nuclear programme targets 30 overseas reactors by 2030, and how India’s Nuclear Energy Mission — backed by the SHANTI Act 2025 and a $2.3 billion SMR budget — targets 100 gigawatts by 2047, including its landmark Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor first criticality achieved at Kalpakkam on April 6, 2026. The axis of global nuclear power is shifting East. The data make this unavoidable.