As long as the nuclear power development is put into use for a long time, the life of the country’s nuclear power plants will naturally be longer. Now the countries with the highest average age of nuclear reactors in the world are Switzerland and Belgium.
Although the United States ranks third, the United States has a total of 92 nuclear reactors, and the average age is as high as 41.6 years.
There are 4 nuclear reactors in Switzerland, which account for 40% of the electricity supply. These reactors are also 46.3 years old.
The country with the second longest average lifetime of nuclear reactors is Belgium, with an average age of 7 nuclear reactors of 42.3 years.
Both Switzerland and Belgium also have plans for a nuclear-free homeland. Switzerland will no longer build any nuclear reactors and will gradually phase out nuclear energy.
The existing power plant has been in operation for 50 years until 2034. Belgium postponed original 2025 nuclear abolition plan to 2035, because of the Russian-Ukrainian war pushed up energy prices.
The United States also started to adopt nuclear power early. The nuclear energy upsurge in the 1960s and 1970s led to the considerable number of nuclear reactors in the United States today.
The five nuclear reactors completed in the 1990s and 2016 were all delayed nuclear power projects in the 1970s.
However, due to the high cost of nuclear energy construction and complicated supervision, the first nuclear power plant built in the United States in the 21st century,
Construction on the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia began in 2013, but it also experienced many regulatory problems, overruns, delays, bankrupted the construction company, and finally let the government provide loans.
Today, the United States is also one of the countries actively pursuing nuclear energy, including the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, and Iran, which have only embarked on the road to nuclear energy in the past ten years.
China’s nuclear power plants were commercially transmitted in 1991, and now there are 55 nuclear reactors, with an average age of only 9 years;
Although India started its nuclear energy program in 1969, it has built it faster than the United States, with an average age of 19 nuclear reactors of 24.2 years.
At present, many countries in Europe are gradually phasing out nuclear power plants, such as Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, etc.
However, the energy crisis that followed after the Russia-Ukrainian War made many people reflect on whether they should embrace nuclear energy again.
For example, considering that there may still be a power supply crisis this winter in Germany, the original plan to shut down all nuclear power plants at the end of the year has changed.
The two nuclear power plants in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg will remain.
