World Nuclear Association Counts 79 Reactors Being Built, 38 in China

The World Nuclear Association's reactor database listed 79 reactors under construction worldwide on Nov. 1, with 78,948 MWe of net capacity, and 38 of them are in China.

The database draws on the association and the International Atomic Energy Agency's Power Reactor Information System (PRIS). Its newest entries are Bailong 2 and Zhaoyuan 2 in China, both started in September 2026. A second association page, updated Oct. 23, counts the same 79 units at 86,560 MWe gross, so the two totals differ by basis (net versus gross), not by data. That page also says six of the 79 are suspended: Carem25 in Argentina, Angra 3 in Brazil, Ohma 1 and Shimane 3 in Japan, and Khmelnitski 3 and 4 in Ukraine.

For AI power supply, the count matters less than where the units are and when they connect. The association's country table, in gross MWe, puts 38 units and 43,327 MWe in China, 8 and 6,600 in India, 7 and 5,342 in Russia, 4 and 5,710 in South Korea, and 4 each in Egypt and Turkey at 4,800 each. The United States has none under construction, against 25 proposed. Voltgrid's calculation from those figures puts China at 48% of units and 50% of gross capacity. Neither association page links the count to AI demand; that framing comes from the news coverage of it.

Who builds the 79

By design, the database lists 19 Hualong One units (18 in China, 1 in Pakistan), 12 CAP1000 units in China, and 25 VVER units, a Russian design, in Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine and China. South Korea's KHNP has four APR-1400 units, at Saeul 3 and 4 and Shin-Hanul 3 and 4, while Hinkley Point C in the UK has two EPR-1750 units. Darlington SMR-1 in Canada, a 300 MWe BWRX-300 that started in June 2026, is the only small modular reactor on the list in North America or Europe.

Several units are old projects. Kudankulam 3 in India, Rooppur 1 in Bangladesh and Saeul 3 in South Korea all began construction in 2017, and the association's table still shows 2026 as their expected grid-connection year. The table's estimated connection years run from 2026 to 2033.

What it means for data centers

Little of this capacity can serve a US campus soon. The nearest US supply in Voltgrid's coverage is existing plants and restarts: three US reactor restarts add 2.25 GW for AI, and Talen's Susquehanna supply to Amazon of up to 1,920 MW through 2042. New US builds are still plans, such as the six-AP1000 Kentucky campus at 6.6 GW. The association's table shows no US unit under construction or in its planned column.

The pipeline also shows how little vendor competition has reached construction. In the association's list, Russian-design VVER units are the main export, while KHNP's four units are all in South Korea. The Czech Republic, where KHNP is to build two Dukovany reactors with Doosan, shows 0 under construction, and Ghana, where Rosatom is in talks on a 2,000 MW plant, does not appear in the table.

What is not confirmed yet

Nikkei Asia headlined the 79 count with an AI-demand angle, but Voltgrid could not read that article, so the figures here come only from the association's pages. Counts differ by source and date: the association's own narrative says "about 80", and the International Energy Agency has put the total at 78 GW in 15 countries, as NucNet reported on Apr. 20. The association's page lists suspended units inside the 79, and the table's year column is a latest estimate, not a commitment.