New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Doing the triple: assessing the nuclear industry’s great leap forward
22/9/2026
8 min read
Feature
Across the World Nuclear Symposium in London, the ‘Roadmaps to new nuclear’ event in Paris, and numerous new reports, the civil nuclear industry has assessed its big goal of tripling nuclear power to 1,200GW capacity by 2050, first announced at COP28 in Dubai, and to which 39 countries have since signed up, the latest being Togo earlier this month. New Energy World Senior Editor Will Dalrymple MEI considers the cases for optimism and pessimism.
Whether or not it triples by 2050, civil nuclear appears to be on a roll. At September’s ‘Roadmaps to new nuclear’ conference organised by the OECD, Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said: ‘This renewed commitment to nuclear power comes not a moment too soon. The disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point for a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade and the war in Ukraine have both shown why we need stronger energy security and a more diverse energy mix.’
He added: ‘But this is not just about energy security; it’s also about meeting growing energy needs. Electricity demand in advanced economies is rising again after 15 years of near stagnation. The drivers vary from growing industry to data centres and artificial intelligence. Nuclear energy can help meet those needs, reliably, around the clock and with low emissions.’
Is doing the triple possible? Is it realistic? Assessing the possibilities is a new report from the organisation behind the plan, the World Nuclear Association (WNA). This new second edition of the World nuclear outlook predicts that target could actually be exceeded. But doing so requires currently operable reactors to be life-extended to 80 years, all reactors under construction, planned or proposed to enter operation by then, and any additional capacity to meet national nuclear targets to also be brought into operation.