The fleet, year by year

Drag the slider or press play to watch nuclear capacity spread from 1951 to 2026. Each circle is a site, sized by the capacity it had online that year; a site vanishes when its last unit shuts down.

2026

Year

2026

present day

Units online

419

Capacity online

404.8

GW gross

Sites on the map

172

with a unit online

Circle area is proportional to the capacity the site had online that year. An amber ring marks a site where a unit started up that year. Hover a circle for its name; every unit has its own page.

Biggest movers

Change in operating capacity over the last 10 years (2016 to 2026), from the same dates as the map above.

Gained the most

Country	2016	2026	Change
China	33.8	64.6	+30.8
United Arab Emirates	0.0	5.7	+5.7
India	5.3	8.4	+3.1
South Korea	24.0	27.1	+3.1
Russia	26.8	29.8	+3.0
Pakistan	1.1	3.5	+2.4
Belarus	0.0	2.4	+2.4
Finland	2.9	4.6	+1.7

Lost the most

Country	2016	2026	Change
Germany	11.4	0.0	-11.4
Japan	20.3	14.6	-5.7
Taiwan	5.1	0.0	-5.1
Belgium	6.2	2.2	-4.0
United Kingdom	10.4	6.5	-3.8
United States	105.8	102.5	-3.4
Sweden	9.5	7.2	-2.4
Canada	14.6	13.5	-1.1

GW gross. A gain here can be one large unit starting up rather than a broad build-out; see a country's own page for its detail.

World operating capacity

First reactor online1951

Peak404.8 GW in 2026

Now404.8 GW 419 units

2026 so far+6.2 GW 5 started

Gross capacity of units that had started up and not been permanently shut down by 31 December each year (2026 is to date). Amber marks the peak, green the present. 24 units are left out because they have no date to place on a timeline; mothballed units carry no date for going offline, and a guess would add capacity the record does not support.

Data table

Year	Units online	GW gross	Change, GW
1951	1	0.00	+0.00
1954	2	0.01	+0.01
1955	3	0.06	+0.05
1956	6	0.13	+0.07
1957	9	0.21	+0.09
1958	12	0.39	+0.18
1959	17	0.68	+0.28
1960	20	0.99	+0.31
1961	23	1.35	+0.36
1962	32	2.30	+0.95
1963	37	2.57	+0.26
1964	45	3.75	+1.18
1965	57	5.93	+2.18
1966	64	7.31	+1.38
1967	66	8.07	+0.76
1968	72	9.98	+1.92
1969	83	13.14	+3.15
1970	89	16.40	+3.26
1971	99	23.38	+6.98
1972	115	33.41	+10.03
1973	127	42.09	+8.68
1974	144	57.88	+15.79
1975	167	75.14	+17.26
1976	179	85.77	+10.63
1977	190	98.62	+12.86
1978	204	110.77	+12.15
1979	222	125.76	+14.99
1980	234	137.36	+11.59
1981	258	158.79	+21.44
1982	266	167.05	+8.25
1983	286	185.99	+18.94
1984	311	213.28	+27.30
1985	349	254.88	+41.60
1986	374	281.31	+26.43
1987	391	302.83	+21.52
1988	406	324.44	+21.61
1989	418	338.37	+13.93
1990	410	340.93	+2.56
1991	407	343.01	+2.08
1992	407	344.60	+1.59
1993	414	351.16	+6.56
1994	416	355.44	+4.28
1995	421	359.03	+3.59
1996	423	361.59	+2.55
1997	422	362.33	+0.75
1998	420	360.25	−2.09
1999	420	361.18	+0.94
2000	425	364.47	+3.29
2001	427	366.86	+2.39
2002	430	374.38	+7.52
2003	427	376.11	+1.72
2004	424	376.32	+0.22
2005	426	378.94	+2.62
2006	420	378.06	−0.88
2007	423	380.56	+2.50
2008	419	379.25	−1.32
2009	416	376.57	−2.68
2010	420	379.62	+3.05
2011	412	371.11	−8.51
2012	412	372.76	+1.65
2013	409	370.34	−2.42
2014	414	376.18	+5.84
2015	415	380.26	+4.08
2016	423	389.98	+9.73
2017	423	391.49	+1.51
2018	425	396.82	+5.33
2019	417	392.87	−3.94
2020	414	388.62	−4.25
2021	411	387.62	−1.00
2022	412	391.72	+4.10
2023	416	394.46	+2.74
2024	419	399.55	+5.09
2025	414	398.56	−0.99
2026	419	404.80	+6.24

Only years in which capacity changed are listed.

Dates are the units' start-up and permanent-shutdown years in the August 2026 tracker release. 23 mothballed units are not drawn, because the record gives no date for when each went offline and a guess would show capacity the data does not support. Fusion devices, naval reactors and units under construction are excluded.

Sources

Global Nuclear Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, August 2026 release , CC BY 4.0
Base map: Natural Earth 110m land , public domain

How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data