High-Grade Vanadium Slag Mining & Processing in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex Region is Progressing as U.S. Vanadium Holding Company (USV) Signs 100% Offtake Agreement with Vanadium Resources Limited (VR8)

       Vanadium Resources Limited (VR8) has made a non-binding offtake agreement with U.S. Vanadium Holding Company LLC (USV) for 100% of the vanadium-bearing slag to be produced from its proposed next-generation V-Iron Plant, tied to the world-class Steelpoortdrift Vanadium Project in South Africa's Bushveld Complex. This comes as the U.S. is seeking to diversify its supply of vanadium away from China and Russia. Vanadium is used in industry, aerospace, and has military uses. Discovery Alert reported on the agreement and is the source of all the figures for this post. They note the importance of the project:

“USV's Arkansas refinery has confirmed via recent metallurgical testing that high-grade slags from South African VTM ores are well-suited to its processing flowsheet. Steelpoortdrift hosts 4.74Mt of contained V₂O₅, making it one of the largest vanadium deposits outside China and Russia.”

     VR8 is producing both pig iron and vanadium slag to diversify revenue and reduce exposure to vanadium price volatility. The development makes it possible that this source of vanadium will be a major supplier to Western markets.

     USV is the only integrated producer of high-purity vanadium specialty chemicals in the U. S, and operates a refinery in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

“Its product suite includes ultra-high-purity vanadium oxide (commanding a significant price premium), vanadium redox flow battery electrolyte, ferrovanadium, vanadium chemicals, vanadium oxides, and nitride vanadium.”

     In the past, USV processed high-grade vanadium-bearing slags from South Africa's Highveld Steel and Vanadium operations. While it no longer processes that source, it has been found to be well-suited to processing the vanadium-bearing slag from the Steelportdrift project. This aligns with USV’s goal of doubling its output of processed vanadium.

     This announcement indicates VR8’s move to a co-production model. Most vanadium production globally, about 70%, is as a by-product of iron smelting. VR8’s proposed process is as follows:

     The advantages of co-production over vanadium production alone are significant and given in the table below.

     Vanadium is a metal that increases the strength and durability of metal alloys while keeping overall weight low. It can withstand high temperatures and is resistant to shock. It is used in jet engine turbines, aircraft airframes, and armor plating for military vehicles and missile casings. About 90% of vanadium is used in the steel industry to increase the strength and durability of the steel. It improves earthquake resistance and is used in skyscrapers, bridges, and transcontinental pipelines. It is also used as the primary catalyst for producing sulfuric acid, the world's most widely used industrial chemical. It also has uses in fertilizer, detergent, and battery manufacturing.

     Below are some key details of the current non-binding offtake agreement. A binding agreement may occur in the future.

     VR8’s plans for the future of the project are detailed below.

     This deal is an important development for the U.S. and for South Africa. For the U.S., it represents a clear diversification away from China and Russia, which together control 93% of global vanadium supply.

     As detailed below, the resource and ore estimates were determined in a 2022 study by DFS. As noted, the recent favorable metallurgical testing at USV’s Arkansas facility makes it more likely that the project will be successful. Thus, the project is considered to be significantly de-risked.

"Vanadium Resources Limited has positioned itself as one of the most strategically relevant vanadium developers outside of China and Russia. With a binding offtake pathway into the United States, a world-class JORC resource, a proven co-production process route, and a clear set of near-term workstreams, VR8 is transitioning from exploration-stage asset holder to a credible supplier to Western critical mineral supply chains. Investors focused on critical minerals, resource nationalism, and Western supply chain security should be watching VR8's next set of milestones closely."

  

 

References:

 

Vanadium Resources Locks In U.S. Offtake Deal for Steelpoortdrift Slag. William Hadrian. Discovery Alert. April 28, 2026. VR8 Secures U.S. Vanadium Offtake for Steelpoortdrift

The SpaceX IPO, Questions About Its Valuation, and the Sheer Absurdity of Elon Musk Being Personally Wealthier Than Every Country in the World Except the 20 Wealthiest Countries

     I read recently that if SpaceX’s IPO goes the way it is predicted, it will make Elon Musk a trillionaire and that his personal worth will be more than all the countries of the world except the twenty wealthiest countries. If that is not a clear signal that our current form of capitalism needs some more checks and balances, I don’t know what else could be.

     There are about 3,030 billionaires in the world and 19 centi-billionaires, those with over $100 billion in net worth, according to Forbes. Musk’s net worth is already double that of the next wealthiest human, Larry Page. The SpaceX IPO is likely to bring Musk’s net worth to three times that of Page. The answer to the question, “Where did all the money go?” should be directed at Mr. Musk. I used to say the mere existence of centi-billionaires is beyond grotesque, but now we are going to have a guy with over ten times that. Where does it end? I know some very smart and hard-working people who are dirt poor. Is Elon’s work really worth the same as the work of hundreds of millions of such people by himself? Think about how absurd it is.  Surely, luck is a factor, and skill is a factor, but it does baffle the mind and yank on our sense of fairness.

     Energy writer Robert Bryce has some ideas about Musk and the SpaceX IPO. In a May 30 post, he notes that Musk has long been fascinated by what is known as the Kardashev Scale, developed by the Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev (1932-2019), which classifies hypothetical civilizations by the amount of power they can harness: planetary, stellar, and galactic, and is often used in searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.

“There are three levels on Kardashev’s scale: Type I, II, and III. The first is a civilization that can use all the energy available on its home planet. For planet Earth, that figure is roughly the power of all the sunlight hitting our world, which is about 1016 watts. Type II societies can harness all of the energy output of their parent star, estimated at 1026 watts in the case of the Sun. And Type III civilizations can harness the energy resources of an entire galaxy, estimated at 1036 watts.”

     Musk’s obsession with going to space is likely related to his fascination with the Kardashev Scale. He quotes Musk, from 2024:

“Once you understand Kardashev Scale, it becomes utterly obvious that essentially all energy generation will be solar.”

     Musk also quipped that the only way to climb the Kardashev Scale is to go to space. Bryce even quotes the Form S-1 filing ahead of SpaceX’s IPO, where, presumably, Musk directly invokes the Kardashev Scale:

“We believe the next paradigm shift for humanity is the creation of a resilient, perpetually expanding spacefaring civilization that drives continuous innovation across new frontiers, ultimately propelling us to Kardashev Type II status — a civilization that harnesses the full energy output of our Sun.”

     Bryce notes the expected $1.7-2 trillion valuation of the IPO and describes it as loony:

“But by traditional metrics, SpaceX’s valuation is nothing short of loony. SpaceX’s 2025 revenue was $18.7 billion. At a valuation of $1.75 trillion, the company’s stock will be trading at 93 times current revenue. Again, that’s a multiple of the company’s revenue, not its profit. And that’s another issue: In 2025, SpaceX recorded an operating loss of $2.6 billion.”

     In a June 9 post, Bryce cites CNBC’s Jim Cramer as saying  the SpaceX IPO could “end up with a $5 trillion valuation on the day it comes public.” Below, he gives a graph of price-to-sales ratios of companies and adds SpaceX if the IPO values it at $1.75 trillion. He determines that SpaceX’s price-to-sales ratio would be 93. Thus, it would be valued at 93 times its current revenue. He also notes he doesn’t own any SpaceX stock and does not plan to buy any.

    Bryce’s conclusion in that post emphasizes the outsized claims and wonders how much of it is simply hype:

“Add in the fact that Musk will retain 85% of the company’s voting shares and that less than 5% of the company’s stock will actually be sold to the public, and the deal becomes even more incredible.”

“Perhaps SpaceX is worth trillions of dollars. But we live in the Age of Hype. Has the hype around SpaceX lost all contact with reality? We are about to find out.”

 

    

 

References:

 

SpaceX At $5 Trillion? The Final Frontier Of FOMO, Robert Bryce. Substack. June 9, 2026. SpaceX At $5 Trillion? The Final Frontier Of FOMO

SpaceX’s $2 Trillion Gas-Fired IPO Elon Musk’s rockets, AI ambitions, and dreams of "interplanetary industrialization" all depend on an old-fashioned fuel: the queen of the hydrocarbons. Robert Bryce. Substack. May 30, 2026. SpaceX’s $2 Trillion Gas-Fired IPO - Robert Bryce

Most Richest People in the World 2026. TOP 50 Billionaires List (June). Oleg Parashchak and Nataly Kramer. Beinsure, June 5, 2026. Richest People in the World 2026 ⭐ Top 50 Billionaires List (June)

 

 

Reclaimed Refrigerants: RMI Analysis Shows Refrigerants Can Be Reclaimed to Virgin Standards, and Doing So Can Help Prevent Price Spikes as Demand for HFCs Could Exceed Supply in the Coming Years

     RMI analyzed the feasibility of recovering refrigerants by reclaiming them to prevent leakage of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) gases with very high global warming potentials (GWPs). With more refrigeration equipment in the world, the need for the recovery of refrigerants increases. The U.S. and other countries are phasing down the use of HFCs, but it will be a long time before HFC-containing equipment is no longer around. The refrigerant R-410A has a GWP of about 2000 and is used in a majority of residential and commercial air conditioning systems in operation today, including in my own heat pump system. Thus, they note that demand for legacy refrigerants will persist even as production declines.

“Meeting this demand will require more effective management of refrigerant already contained within the installed base of cooling equipment, where significant volumes remain embedded in equipment at the end of its useable life. For example, R-410A accounted for 39% of all HFCs in use in 2022, and more than 80% of residential and small commercial air conditioning equipment rely on it. Much of this refrigerant could be recovered: a national contractor survey found that more than half of retiring residential systems still retain at least 75% of their charge at installation (the proportion of refrigerant contained within a system).”    

     They note that the reclaimed refrigerants can be recovered, reclaimed with sufficient purity, and returned to the market.  

“Scaling recovery and reclamation can convert recovered refrigerant from retired systems into a meaningful secondary supply stream, helping to offset declining production, reduce shortages, and limit price volatility as supply tightens under the HFC phasedown.”

     Reclaimed refrigerants can be utilized as part of buyback programs. They note that not enough refrigerants are currently recovered and reclaimed.

“Despite these benefits, reclaimed refrigerant remains underutilized in the United States, comprising just 3 to 10% of total HFC consumption as of 2022, and refrigerant recovery rates are well below leading nations such as Japan, where the recovery is around 40%.”

     Thus, reclaiming refrigerants presents both an economic opportunity and an opportunity to prevent greenhouse gas emissions.

     RMI partnered with OTS R&D to evaluate the performance of reclaimed refrigerant under controlled laboratory conditions.

“The results were clear: In both systems, across all operating conditions, there were no statistically significant differences in performance between reclaimed and virgin refrigerants. Heating and cooling capacity, as well as energy efficiency, remained consistent and within expected uncertainty bounds. These findings demonstrate that reclaimed refrigerant meeting AHRI 700 standards is chemically equivalent to virgin refrigerant and delivers equivalent performance, reinforcing its viability as a reliable substitute for virgin supply.”

     Reclaiming refrigerants can make the transition to lower GWP refrigerants more cost-effective.

“…fully realizing this opportunity will require sustained coordination and alignment across contractors, distributors, refrigerant producers and reclaimers, equipment suppliers, and policymakers to make adoption of reclaimed refrigerant a standardized industry practice.”     

     Recommendations are given below:

     The key finding of the report is that reclaimed refrigerants can be easily and cheaply reprocessed to virgin refrigerant standards. They note that it will be important in the years to come to manage reclaimed refrigerant, which is still in demand but no longer produced, in order to avoid shortages, price volatility, and service disruptions for contractors and building owners. Europe experienced refrigerant price spikes due to its phase-down requirements, but such problems can be avoided by a well-managed reclamation process.

   

References:

 

Clearing the Air on Reclaimed Refrigerant: Evidence of performance parity with virgin refrigerant. Raghav Muralidharan, Ellie White, Ankit Kalanki, Ellery Klein, Dennis Nasuta. Additional Contributors: Ian McGavisk, Teressa Healy, Sebastian Perez, Sukanya Paciorek, and Hudson Technologies. Rocky Mountain Institute. April 21, 2026. Clearing the Air on Reclaimed Refrigerant - RMI

Report Overview. Clearing the Air on Reclaimed Refrigerant. April 2026. key-takeaways-refrigerant-report-graphics_4.20.26.pdf

 

 

Machine Learning Lithofacies Prediction and Deep Learning Fault Detection Transform Reservoir Characterization – Faster and More Economical vs. Traditional Methods – Webinar Summary/Review. June 2, 2026.

      This webinar was presented by three people from Geophysical Insights. I had some trouble with the audio, so I am relying a lot on the figures shown. This is a software-based analysis of AI/ML geoscience workflows. Al Green, Director of Geophysical Insights, was the first presenter. He gives the AI/ML workflow in terms of four key ideas:

1) Lithofacies prediction with faster integration of machine learning with well logs; 2) Thin bed detection; 3) Apply information theory to identify optimum seismic attributes; 4) Generate fault volumes in 2D and 3D using synthetic fault models.

     I believe the software utilized is called Paradise. He speaks of the workflow as thought-flows – from stratigraphic analysis to lithofacies prediction to fault detection. Seismic and well logs are used for lithofacies prediction. A self-organized map, or SOM topology, is generated by AI/ML, which is converted to lithofacies topology and then to geo-bodies with calculatable volumetrics. The workflow enables a means of interrogating 3D results.

     The next speaker was Alvaro Chaveste, Sr. Geophysical Advisor at Geophysical Insights. The slide below shows seismic, well log, and resulting lithofacies prediction of a case study in the West Desert of Egypt.

     As shown below, the seismic interpretations and well logs are integrated to get the lithofacies prediction.

     SOMs, or self-organized maps, with a clustering of seismic attributes are shown below, followed by how to decide optimum attributes to use and attribute selection. Attributes are selected using Mutual Information, an idea from information theory that measures how much information two random variables share. It determines how much knowing one variable reduces uncertainty about another variable. Variables include porosity, water saturation, etc., and petrophysical properties. The flow is to first generate an SOM, then compare it to seismic.

     Machine learning for lithofacies prediction involves creating a table and histogram showing the matching of predictions from different sources, such as finding hydrocarbon saturation and distinguishing it from water saturation, to get a better SOM that shows the hydrocarbon reservoir. The SOM can now be generated in 3D, and volumetrics can be calculated.

     The next speaker was Fabian Rada, Geophysical Consultant at Geophysical Insights. His talk was about complex clastic gas reservoirs offshore India. The goal is to reduce uncertainty in a complex reservoir. The first slide below shows the geology of the complex stacked reservoirs, and the second one shows the challenge: modeling a thin reservoir with a resolution of 5 meters.

     He goes through the workflow that utilizes deep learning fault detection and moves from ML lithofacies prediction to the generation of ML geo-bodies, in this case, gas sands. The seismic data trains the model. The deep learning workflow for fault detection is shown below.

     The next step is to find the ML-generated faults on seismic. Then they can be integrated and shown on contour maps. Finally, the ML lithofacies prediction can be used for geomodelling, and porosity can be modeled from lithofacies volumes. His conclusions are shown below, and they include that the method can be used to analyze complex reservoirs, including reservoir compartmentalization, which traditionally can be problematic for prediction.

     One question from the Q&A was whether the technique can be used for 2D data sets. The answer is yes, it can, but one may lose the homogeneity of the data.

     This webinar was tough to follow at times, and utilizing the technique requires complex software and large datasets. However, it appears that it can be successfully utilized for geomodelling complex reservoirs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wyoming Pumped Hydro Project Facing Pushback Due to Potential Wildlife and Fishing Impacts

      Company rPlus Hydro’s proposed $4 billion pumped-water electricity storage facility at Wyoming's Seminoe Reservoir is getting pushback from wildlife advocates, biologists, environmentalists, and trout fishing enthusiasts. In a recent hearing at the Wyoming State Legislature, they warned that a primary federal permitting review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is too lax on “acceptable” impacts and riddled with inaccurate assumptions promoted by the project developer.

     According to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle:

“These concerns are not theoretical for us,” Casper Mayor Ray Pacheco told the legislative panel. “Casper relies directly on the North Platte River for drinking water, wastewater treatment, recreation, tourism and the quality of life.”

     There are concerns about potential impacts to the Ferris-Seminoe bighorn sheep herd, mostly due to blasting and industrial traffic during the project’s five-year construction period. Another concern is the effects of warmer water temperatures on trout. There are also concerns that it may exacerbate the regional drought that is ongoing.

     The article notes how pumped hydro works:

“Pumped water storage” involves pumping water uphill during daytime “off-peak demand” hours for electricity when wind and solar power are plentiful and wholesale electricity is cheapest, according to rPlus Hydro. The pumped water would be temporarily stored in a to-be-constructed reservoir above the current reservoir and released to generate hydroelectricity during higher-demand evening hours.

     The upper reservoir is planned to be 13,400-acre-foot in size. The company representative at the hearing for rPlus Hydro noted:

“It’s an enormously large project to meet Wyoming’s future energy needs,” rPlus Hydro Deputy General Counsel Kevin Baker told the legislative committee, adding that it would help lower the cost of electricity. “Pumped (water) storage is actually one of the longest duration, most effective and most cost-efficient types of energy storage that’s on the market today.”

     Baggs Republican Sen. Larry Hicks argued that Wyoming is a net exporter of electricity and the project was not likely to lower in-state power costs.

     CiCi Oliver of the Ugly Bug Fly Shop in Casper, which employs 45 people and is dependent on the North Platte River fishery, noted:

“This proposal requires exemptions from existing land use and wildlife protections in order to move forward. It is my belief that if a project only works by loosening protections that were specifically created to safeguard habitat and sensitive resources, then perhaps it is not suited for the location in the first place.”

     For this project, presumably due to it being on federal acreage, the permitting agency is mainly FERC, and state regulators have little to no role in setting permitting conditions. After the FERC’s final environmental impact statement (EIS) is issued in June, state regulators may request amendments to the BLM and Wyoming Game and Fish. The project must also be approved by the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council.

     The project began development in 2019 and is expected to be in service in 2031. That is a 12-year period from proposal to operation, if it stays on schedule. According to the company’s website:

“The project will consist of one new reservoir, underground tunnels and underground powerhouse, an intake-outlet structure in Seminoe Reservoir, and a new transmission line. The new reservoir will be located approximately 1,000 feet above the Seminoe Reservoir, approximately 10,000 feet east of the Seminoe Dam. Energy for pumping, and power generated by the project, will be delivered through a new, 30-mile transmission line connecting the project with PacifiCorp’s existing Aeolus Substation, near Medicine Bow.”’

     The project schedule is given below, followed by a nicely done video detailing how the project will be constructed:

References:

 

Critics oppose Wyoming hydroelectric project, pointing to climate-driven drought crisis. Dustin Bleizeffer. Wyoming Tribune Eagle. May 30, 2026. Critics oppose Wyoming hydroelectric project, pointing to climate-driven drought crisis | Local News | wyomingnews.com

Seminoe Pumped Storage Project. rPlus Hydro (website). Seminoe Pumped Storage | The Modern Energy Hub for Wyoming

New Northeast Pipeline Projects Serve In-Region and Out-of-Region Demand: Summary of RBN Analysis Plus My Own Analysis

     New pipeline projects are moving forward in the Northeast after the U.S. government removed some barriers for approvals that have been hampering buildout for several years. In-region demand continues to grow as more coal plants are retired and as demand from AI data centers continues to grow. Out-of-region demand is highlighted by LNG export capacity growth, which is expected to continue as well. The Appalachian Basin region, with its shale plays: Marcellus, Utica, and the smaller Burket play, continues to have the best natural gas economics in the U.S. Thus, the potential profit margin is high if that gas can be moved to LNG export terminals. 

     Environmentalists have been the main cause of limiting natural gas pipeline access to New England. Allowing more natural gas into the region would decrease electricity costs for residents and for industry. It would also result in better air quality during winter cold spells, as diesel would not have to be burned. It would improve both winter and summer power reliability. That is a ‘no-brainer’ to most of us, but the environmental lobby, with the help of anti-fossil fuel governors and regulators, has been able to keep that no-brainer from occurring, to the detriment of consumers. The recent scrapping of offshore wind projects also means that planned capacity will likely be replaced, and natural gas is the best option.

     Enbridge’s AGT Enhancement project plans to increase its peak-demand period capacity by 75MMCF/day on its Algonquin Gas Transmission (AGT) pipeline system from New Jersey to eastern New England. 

     The plans for this upgrade include looping, building larger pipelines through some sections, and compressor upgrades, as detailed below. Doing these kinds of upgrades instead of building new lines makes it easier to get approval from state regulators, typically unwilling to approve new pipelines and routes.

     FERC has agreed to expedite its review of the project. It also has plans to increase capacity further on that system, as RBN details below.

“In mid-May, the midstream giant unveiled plans for Project Beacon, which — depending on the results of a simultaneously issued open season — could add another 300 MMcf/d of capacity to the system (and possibly even more) by late 2030 through a series of physical and operational improvements.”

     It is likely that similar upgrades: looping, larger diameter pipe, and more compression, will be implemented in Project Beacon. They also believe that the project will stick to existing rights of way, as they are doing in the current upgrades.

“Persistent constraints in the region limit the system’s ability to meet growing peak-day demand, which drives sustained basis differentials between New England and upstream production areas.” The company stated that “additional pipeline capacity dedicated to gas-fired generation is essential to providing rapid ramping capacity” — that is, the ability of a power plant to quickly increase its generation of electricity. It said AGT is “offering a solution to close this gap with dedicated transportation capacity paired with in-region storage” to meet the variable needs of gas-fired generators and other gas users.”

     Midstream company Williams has two northeast pipeline projects in the works. The first is the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE), which was cancelled long ago but revived in 2025 with Trump administration support and state approvals. It is currently under construction and expected to be in service in 4Q 2027.

     Williams operates the 10,000-mile-plus Transco system, of which these enhancements are a part. The project is expected to involve 36.4 miles of looping, pipe size increases, compression increases, and compression upgrades. It is expected to provide 400 MMcf/d of firm transportation capacity to gas utility National Grid’s service territory in three of New York City’s five boroughs (Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Queens) and Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties.

     Williams’ Constitution Pipeline is a 125-mile, 650-MMcf/d project that was approved by FERC in 2014, denied water permits by the State of New York in 2016, and cancelled in 2020. The pipeline route originates in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, one of the counties in the state with the highest Marcellus gas production. This is dry gas, which needs minimal treatment to be pipeline-ready. As RBN points out, this line would also connect three important large pipelines, giving some optionality to moving gas to where it is needed faster.

     Below, they discuss the challenges to revive this pipeline. Many of us believe this pipeline should have been built a decade ago and would by now have improved power reliability and lowered electricity costs in the region.

“The Constitution project’s prospective revival faces two significant challenges, however, and its fate is uncertain. One is that the state of New York is opposing Williams’s December 2025 request that FERC reissue the project’s CPCN. The other is that, unlike the NESE project, whose development was based on the needs of one gas utility in a single state, the Constitution project would require long-term commitments from multiple gas buyers in two or more states.”

“Asked about the project’s prospects during Williams’s May 5 earnings call, CEO Chad Zamarin said that to make the project a go, “we have to coalesce a critical mass” of customer interest — something Williams continues to pursue as it fights legal challenges to its request to FERC to reissue its CPCN. “That's really the challenge with Constitution. It’s just a much more fragmented market and a lot of different constituencies that need to come together. ... We’re going to keep at it.”

     

 

References:

 

Movin’ Out – The Pipeline Projects That Will Move More Natural Gas Through (and Out of) the Northeast. Housley Carr. RBN Energy. June 8, 2026. Movin’ Out – The Pipeline Projects That Will Move More Natural Gas Through (and Out of) the Northeast | RBN Energy

China Leads Recent Nuclear Power Deployment, but the U.S. is Still by Far the Global Leader in Nuclear Power Capacity and Generation

     

     The EIA recently pointed out that China has nearly doubled its nuclear power capacity in the past decade, while the U.S. has more or less had the same nuclear power capacity over the past 25 years. China added 24GW of nuclear capacity from 2016 to 2024 and an additional 3.3GW since then for a total of 27.3 GW in the past decade. China is continuing its nuclear buildout and currently has 36 reactors under construction, accounting for more than 49% of total world nuclear construction, according to PRIS. They also show that all of China’s nuclear power plants are located along the length of its East Coast, where the population is highest.  

     According to the EIA:

“Nuclear projects in China use a standardized project management approach for design, licensing, and construction for multiple reactor technologies. Reactors are built in batches of 6 to 10 reactors to take advantage of economies of scale. China is also building up a nuclear supply chain with a focus on domestic manufacturing of the main plant components to decrease reliance on foreign nuclear vendors.”

“Additionally, China’s average build time for nuclear power plants is below the global average. According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, 2022 the average build time for a nuclear power plant in China between 2012 and 2021 was six years, compared with a global average construction time of about nine years.”

     China is also building its first small modular reactor (SMR), a 100MWe pressurized water reactor that can be used for power generation, water desalination, and district heating. It was designed domestically and is expected to come online in the first half of 2026, so very soon.

     According to World Population Review:

“As of late 2025, there are about 439 operable nuclear reactors worldwide, with a combined capacity of approximately 389.5 GW. Additionally, 56 reactors are currently under construction, which will add around 63.7 GW to global capacity.”

     Thus, China’s 36 reactors under construction make up 64% of reactors under construction globally.

     Below are a map and a graph of nuclear power generation by country. Note that since nuclear units typically have high capacity factors, or utilization rates, the difference between capacity and generation is less than for intermittent sources like wind or solar, or underutilized, inefficient coal plants.

     The U.S. has had nearly the same nuclear capacity and nuclear generation over the past 40 years.

 

Nuclear electricity installed capacity | United States = 98.39 GW

Nuclear energy generation | United States = 781.87 TWh

 

References:

 

China’s nuclear power capacity nearly doubled since 2016. Energy Information Administration. June 5, 2026. China’s nuclear power capacity nearly doubled since 2016 - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Nuclear Power by Country 2026. World Population Review. Nuclear Power by Country 2026

Nuclear energy generation | United States. Stat Base. Nuclear energy generation | United States (1965−2024) − Data, Charts & Analysis

Nuclear electricity installed capacity | United States. Stat Base. Nuclear electricity installed capacity | United States (1980−2024) − Data, Charts & Analysis