Nuclear Power Could Produce 14 Percent of Electricity By 2050: UN

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the UN announced that due to different factors such as climate change, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and the rising energy prices, the importance of nuclear technology for the global electricity supply is increasing.

Today, 430 nuclear reactors are operating in 32 countries, providing approximately 386GW of installed capacity. According to an analysis performed by IAEA, these numbers account for 10 percent of the global electricity supply and about a quarter of all low-carbon electricity. In countries like France, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine, nuclear power is responsible for more than half of the energy mix.

Furthermore, there are 57 reactors under construction in 18 countries, which are expected to provide around 59GW of additional electric capacity, until nuclear power reaches 14 percent of the global installed capacity. According to projections made by IAEA, nuclear power production capacity will more than double, up to 873GW, by 2050. “This reflects a shift in the global debate on energy and the environment amid growing concerns about energy security and climate change,” pointed out IAEA.

To reach these goals, the agency said that actions such as advances in nuclear waste management, legal changes, resolving financing issues and improving the supply chain for the construction of new reactors will be required. The agency also encouraged technological developments, especially those related to new reactors that can be modular and either small or medium-sized, as well as cheaper and more flexible.

IAEA also projects a more conservative scenario, where the current trend would continue without major legal or policy changes. In this scenario, nuclear capacity would not change substantially over the next 30 years and it would account for only 7 percent of global electricity production by 2050.

Regarding nuclear energy projects in Mexico, CFE announced plans to double power its generation capacity with nuclear technology by 2030. During his participation in the Energy Expo in Veracruz, Carlos Morales, Operations Director, CFE, expressed that the nuclear energy capacity in Mexico was projected to double from 4 to 8 percent of the energy mix by the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Energy, Rocío Nahle, has expressed her approval of this technology on multiple occasions, even intending to develop a project for a small modular nuclear reactor in Baja California. 

Mexico has one nuclear power plant, Laguna Verde in the state of Veracruz. The plant has two nuclear reactors and a capacity of 1,600MW. In 2021, electricity from nuclear sources reached 11,600 GW/h, equivalent to 9 percent of clean energy produced in the country. Because nuclear energy does not suffer from intermittency like wind and solar energy do, the state utility remains interested.