Finance
Russia says it will help China overtake the United States on nuclear power
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 3, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 3, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Russia will aid China in overtaking the US in nuclear power production, with plans to exceed 100 GW capacity using Russian technology.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia will help China overtake the United States as the world's biggest producer of nuclear power, the chief of Russia's Rosatom state nuclear corporation said in comments broadcast on state TV on Wednesday after talks in Beijing.
The United States operates the world's largest network of nuclear reactors, with nearly 97 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity.
China is racing to build dozens of reactors though and had 53.2 GW of operating nuclear power reactor capacity as of April 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
"China has ambitious plans for the development of atomic energy. The task has been set to catch up and surpass the United States in installed capacity, which means reaching a capacity of more than 100 gigawatts," Alexei Likhachev, the Rosatom chief, told Russian state television.
Asked by state television if Russia would help China in that target, Likhachev said: "Of course. We will help. We are already helping."
Russia has already helped build four nuclear reactors in China and is building four more and China needs a large amount of uranium and nuclear fuel for its ambitious plans, Likhachev said.
As a result China will need to develop a new generation of closed nuclear fuel cycle reactors based on Russian technology, he said.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Guy FaulconbridgeEditing by Andrew Osborn)
Nuclear power is energy produced from nuclear reactions, typically through the process of nuclear fission, where atomic nuclei are split to release energy used for electricity generation.
Uranium is a heavy metal used as fuel in nuclear reactors. It undergoes fission to release energy, making it a key component in nuclear power generation.
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. It is commonly used in nuclear power plants to generate electricity.
Installed capacity refers to the maximum output that a power plant can produce under specific conditions, typically measured in megawatts (MW) or gigawatts (GW).
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