⚛️ The IEA Just Confirmed the Nuclear Supercycle

After twenty years of people treating nuclear like that friend who swears they’ll “start going to the gym next week”, the industry is finally showing up, stretching, and lifting real weight again.

Last week the IEA dropped its brand new World Energy Outlook 2025, and the takeaway is that nuclear is not only back, it is entering the most serious growth phase in decades.

The world now has more than 40 countries with nuclear built into their energy strategies, and there are over 70 GW of reactors under construction, one of the highest levels in 30 years. The nuclear renaissance is happening in real time.

China continues to be the reactor factory of the planet. The IEA notes that China now accounts for almost half of all global capacity under construction, and it is on track to overtake the United States as the world’s largest nuclear operator around 2030.

The United States, meanwhile, is gearing up again too. Nuclear capacity begins increasing by 2035, fueled by rising demand from companies that want reliable power for data centers.

Europe is also shifting gears, with France, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Sweden all moving ahead with new nuclear programs or expansions.

And then there is the pledge that everyone is watching. At COP28 and COP29, more than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050, which means going from 413 GW to roughly 1,240 GW.

To hit that target, the IEA says the world would need to build around 40 GW of new nuclear every year through the 2030s and 2040s.

For perspective, we have never done that before. No one has ever done that before, but the political pressure, the industrial demand, and the data center boom are pushing the world in that direction faster than expected.

Speaking of capital, the numbers are huge. Annual global nuclear investment would need to rise from about $70 billion today to more than $210 billion by 2035 and then hold above $160 billion a year through the 2040s.

The entire market cap of every uranium miner, fuel cycle company, and nuclear tech firm combined is only around $250 billion today. One decade of nuclear investment is larger than the entire sector’s market cap today. What do you think happens when that kind of money flows into a market this small?

The report also highlights something new. Nuclear is no longer treated as an optional low carbon technology or a nice to have. It is positioned as a central pillar of energy security, a stabilizing force for grids that are creaking under peak loads, and a serious tool for hydrogen production, industrial heat, and even desalination.

The IEA specifically calls out 30 GW of SMR interest from data centers alone, which is the clearest signal yet that the tech sector wants nuclear more than another wind farm.

If you take one thing from this, let it be this: Nuclear’s next chapter is already underway, the investment wave is enormous, and the companies that mine, fuel, and build reactors are stepping into the largest energy expansion of their lifetimes. Stay tuned, because this cycle is only getting started.

Read the full report here👉 World Energy Outlook 2025

Most readers skim reports like this. A smaller group spots the trend. An even smaller group positions before the crowd wakes up. If you want to be in that last group, not reading about it after the fact, join Nuclear Update Premium.

🚀Trump To Lend "Hundreds Of Billions" To Build Nuclear Power Plants

This week U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said something that should make every nuclear fan sit up straight. The DOE loan office (which controls hundreds of billions in federal lending authority) is about to point the biggest chunk of that money straight at nuclear.

“By far the biggest use of those dollars will be for nuclear power plants, to get those first plants built,” he said. He even spelled out the ambition: “Before I leave office, I want to see hopefully dozens of nuclear plants under construction.”

That is the quiet part finally said out loud, and it changes the entire shape of the U.S. buildout.

For years the question has been who would pay for the reactors needed to power America’s AI boom. Big Tech has the appetite, but not the balance sheets for multi gigawatt megaprojects. Private lenders want returns, not years of construction risk. Ratepayers aren’t going to swallow it either.

So the federal government is stepping in with the one tool nobody else has, a bottomless lending capacity.

Wright even hinted the DOE could match private equity 4 to 1, which means Big Tech puts in a dollar and Washington brings the other four.

The U.S. currently has zero commercial reactors under construction while China has 29. If the White House wants to close that gap, this is how you do it. A flood of cheap federal debt, backed by the world’s largest tech companies, aimed squarely at new nuclear steel.

⏳ Is This the Last Pullback?

Uranium equities have been dipping, but the smart money isn’t flinching. If this is the last shakeout before the cycle accelerates, it won’t stay quiet for long. Premium gives you the read before the crowd wakes up.

🇰🇷Korea Extends Kori 2, Nine More Reactors Next

Korea just approved a 10 year life extension for the Kori 2 reactor, taking it from roughly 40 years of operation to 50. Kori 2 is a 650 MW Westinghouse designed 3 loop PWR, one of the early U.S. supplied workhorses in Korea’s fleet.

The unit has been offline since April 2023, when its original 40 year permit expired, and is now planned to restart in February 2026.

And this is not a one off. The regulator is expected to approve extensions for 9 more reactors in the coming months. For a country with 26 reactors overall, that is a major policy signal.

Korea’s current prime minister is far less nuclear friendly than the last administration. The official line is all about renewables, targets, and new buildout plans. But when you zoom out, the message from the regulator is very different.

They are not going to force working reactors offline in a country where electricity demand is rising, AI is expanding, and reliability still matters more than slogans.

If Korea really wants to get serious about energy security, it should take the next step and follow the U.S. toward 80 year reactor lifetimes.

America has already shown that with inspections, upgrades, and modern safety systems, reactors can run safely for twice their original license period. Korea’s fleet is newer, standardized, and exceptionally well run.

There is no technical reason the APR1400 era should stop at 50 years.

So yes, extending Kori 2 to 50 years is smart. Extending 9 more is even smarter. But the real inflection point comes when Korea admits what everyone else is figuring out right now.

The cheapest new power is the reactor you already have, and the next global nuclear race is not just about building more units, it is also about keeping the existing ones running as long as possible.

🇧🇾Belarus To Build a Third Reactor

Belarus has officially approved the construction of a third reactor at the Ostrovets nuclear power plant, the country’s only nuclear station, and will also begin surveying sites for a second plant in the country’s east.

The two existing VVER 1200 reactors already supply more than a quarter of the country’s electricity. Both units were built by Rosatom, with first concrete poured in 2013 and 2014 and grid connection in 2020 and 2023.

The decision was made at a meeting hosted by President Alexander Lukashenko, who highlighted something most countries forget. When you build a nuclear plant, you build a community.

Ostrovets has nearly doubled to 15,000 people, driven by high quality jobs, technical careers, and a growing ecosystem around the site. “Graduates from energy faculties dream of getting a job there,” he said.

Belarus has every reason to scale nuclear. Five years after Unit 1 entered service, regulators reviewed the plant’s performance and found exactly what nuclear countries always find. Strong energy security. Stable electricity prices. Faster electrification. And perhaps most telling, public support for nuclear rising from 60 percent before construction to over 80 percent today.

The trend is familiar. Countries that build nuclear and see it work always end up building more. Small nations expanding their fleets used to be unusual. Now it is normal.

🎞️ The Most Terrifying Safety Ad Ever Made

Here’s something that is equal parts horrifying and fascinating. The original “Duck and Cover” TV ad, where a turtle teaches kids how to survive a nuclear attack.

It is impossible to look away, mostly because it feels like a time capsule from a world that somehow thought this was reassuring.

❄️Glaciers on Borrowed Time

Welcome back to Atomic Alternatives, where we explore the strange, clever, and occasionally apocalyptic ways nuclear science shows up in the world beyond reactors.

This week, we’re heading to 5,100 meters up in the Bolivian Andes, where a glacier is disappearing so fast that scientists are racing to record its final decades before it’s gone for good.

The Western Huayna Potosí Glacier, a drinking-water lifeline for more than a million people, is retreating at roughly 24 meters a year. At this pace, it could vanish entirely within 20 years.

To keep up with the melting, researchers from the Andes and Himalayas are installing cosmic ray neutron sensors on the glacier’s surface.

When cosmic rays hit the atmosphere, they generate fast neutrons that rain down on Earth. Those neutrons slow down whenever they collide with hydrogen atoms (which are abundant in water).

By measuring the ratio of fast to slow neutrons, the sensors reveal exactly how much water is sitting in the snowpack and how quickly it’s disappearing. It is nuclear physics repurposed into a real-time water gauge, a radiation-based ruler for a glacier on borrowed time.

Scientists cannot stop the glacier from melting. But they can help people adapt. That means more reservoirs, dredging old ones, reshaping land to hold water, and re-growing native forests to strengthen soil.

It also means negotiating new water-sharing rules before scarcity turns into conflict.

From the Himalayas to the Andes, from Switzerland to Alaska, the pattern is the same. Glaciers that once felt eternal are slipping away faster than anyone predicted. And nuclear science is helping prepare for a future where those frozen reservoirs no longer exist.

😂Meme of The Week

From trillion dollar energy forecasts to Washington opening its lending firehose, from Korea extending reactors to Belarus adding new ones, the nuclear world is moving in real time. The momentum is no longer theoretical. It is political, financial, and accelerating everywhere at once.

Until next time: stay charged, stay critical (like a reactor), and keep glowing 😎

— Fredrik

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