Global nuclear power consumption by country 2020

The United States is the largest consumer of nuclear power, accounting for more than 30 percent of the world’s nuclear power consumption in 2020. In this year, nuclear energy consumption in the U.S. totaled 7.4 exajoules.

Nuclear power generation

By 2010, global nuclear power generation had reached 2,630 terawatt hours. However, the following year saw output drop due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. Generation continued to decline in the following year but has since recovered. With annual growth, nuclear power generation reached 2,586 terawatt hours in 2019. Currently, nuclear power accounts for roughly 10 percent of global electricity generation.

Nuclear reactors

As the top producer of nuclear power, it comes as no surprise that the United States has by far the most operable nuclear reactors worldwide. With a total of 95 currently in operation, this is twice the number of operable reactors in China. However, whilst the U.S. has just three planned nuclear reactor additions in the pipeline, China has 44. As of May 2020, there were 11 nuclear reactors under construction in China. It is projected the China will eventually surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest nuclear energy producer.