INTRODUCTION | REVIEW OF 2022 2022 in review
THERE WERE 438 OPERATIONAL NUCLEAR reactors worldwide as of 1 January 2023, the plants representing a total combined capacity of some 394 GWe. For comparison, on 1 January 2022 there were 437 operable nuclear power reactors with a total global installed capacity of 389.5 GWe. Although five reactors were permanently shut down in
2022 with a combined output of 3.3 GWe, more than 7.4 GWe of new reactor capacity was connected to the grid. Closures included the 805 MW Palisades plant in the USA and two reactors in the UK – Hinkley Point B totalling 965 MWe and the 495 MWe Hunterston B-2 – removing 1540 MWe from the National Grid. After 40 years of operation Belgium also shut the 1006 MWe Doel-3, the country’s first nuclear power plant. New connections to the grid in 2022, included two
reactors in China. The 1075 MWe Fuqing-6 is the second demonstration Hualong One HPR1000 unit, while the 1061 MW Hongyanhe-6 plant is a third-generation ACPR- 1000 PWR. Meanwhile, China also supplied the ACP1000 PWR that was connected to the grid at the Karachi NPP in Pakistan. In South Korea, a 1340 MWe PWR – an APR-1400 – was commissioned at the Hanul nuclear power plant. These additions as a whole bought 5.8 GWe of new nuclear
capacity across Asia. In the United Arab Emirates, the 1345 MWe Barakah unit 3 began operations, this unit also being supplied by South Korea. In Europe, net nuclear capacity fell with just a single new
grid connection, the 1600 MWe EPR reactor at Finland’s Olkiluoto, unit 3 of the plant. The figures broadly reflect an on-going trend that is seeing nuclear capacity fall in the west while it ramps up in Asia and the Middle East. In Asia, nuclear generation rose by 5% between 2021 and 2022 and across the region nuclear generation capacity has more than doubled over the last decade. This is a movement that is widely anticipated to accelerate. There were 58 new reactors under construction at the end of 2022, of which more than half are in just three Asian countries – fully 18 are located in China, four in India and three in South Korea. A further four are being built in Turkieye. Although progress on new nuclear development remains below that required to meet climate change ambitions, growing recognition of nuclear’s low carbon contribution to the energy mix and its security of supply advantages are expected to see further development accelerate in the coming years. Collectively, the global nuclear reactor fleet generated
Table 1: 2021 construction starts Country
Name
Egypt China
Below, Figure 1: Number of reactor construction starts and grid connections by year
Turkeyie Egypt China China China
El Dabaa 2 Lufang 5 Akkuyu 4 El Dabaa 1 Haiyang 3 Sanmen 3 Xudabao 4
Design
Capacity (MWe)
Date of first
concrete
PWR 1100 20 Nov PWR 1100 9 Aug PWR
1114
PWR 1100 PWR PWR
1161
21 July 20 July 7 July
1163 28 June PWR 1100 19 May
just less than 2487 TWh of electricity during 2022. The equivalent figure for 2021 was 2653.3 MWe. This reduction of about 4% reflects the shut downs seen in Europe, the Ukraine and the USA, as well as problems that reduced output from the French nuclear fleet. Reactor performance generally remained high with the global average capacity factor reaching 80.5%, marginally down from the 82.3% seen in 2021. The output figure is expected to grow during 2023 as more new capacity comes on line and repairs to French reactors improve their overall performance. Even so, in 2022 nuclear energy supplied some 10% of the total global electricity, and thus contributed around a quarter of all low-carbon electricity. Of the 58 reactors currently under construction, once completed these reactors will have a total installed capacity of more than 59 GWe across 18 countries. ■
50 40 30 20 10 0 00
Construction starts Grid connections
4 | World Nuclear Industry Handbook 2023 |
www.neimagazine.com
Number of reactors
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2022
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