The World Nuclear Industry Status Report statistics show the rise and fall of nuclear energy, with nuclear energy accounting for only 4.3% of total global energy needs.
The world's interest in alternative energy sources, particularly nuclear energy, has surged as a result of the global energy crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
However, as explained below, many nuclear programs would be difficult to rapidly undo due to the age of nuclear infrastructure, the fact that the technology had started a phase-out mode in many countries, and the ongoing opposition to new nuclear projects.
The majority of nuclear energy programmes were launched in the 1970s, according to statistics from the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (pdf below), which is reflected in the age of nuclear reactors today. The number of nuclear programmes worldwide has plateaued for many decades despite some of them coming to an end (and many more being planned for phase-out), most recently the...