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China reins in the spiralling construction costs of nuclear power — what can other countries learn?

Strengthening regulations and domestic supply chains could be key to making nuclear power more economically viable.
By
  1. Shangwei Liu

    1. Shangwei Liu is a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

  2. Gang He

    1. Gang He is an assistant professor at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, CUNY Institute for Demographic Research and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, USA.

  3. Minghao Qiu

    1. Minghao Qiu is an assistant professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA.

  4. Daniel M. Kammen

    1. Daniel M. Kammen is a professor of energy in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, School of Advanced International Studies and Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Aerial view of the construction site of the No. 2 unit for Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant in China.

The Taipingling nuclear power plant in Huizhou, China, has been under construction since 2019. Credit: VCG via Getty

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Once again, the world is betting on nuclear power. The United States aims to quadruple its nuclear capacity by 2050, and more than 30 countries have pledged to triple global capacity by mid-century. China has more than 30 reactors under construction and in planning, and France has announced plans to build 14 reactors. Technology giants, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft, are also investing in nuclear to power their energy-hungry data centres and lower their carbon emissions.

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Nature 643, 1186-1188 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02341-z

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Supplementary Information

  1. Methodology and supplementary figures
  2. Source data

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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