The United States is 15 years behind China in the development of high-tech nuclear energy, as Beijing's state-backed technological approach and large funding give it an advantage. Reuters writes about this with reference to a study by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, UNN reports.
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China is building 27 nuclear reactors with an average construction period of about seven years, which is much faster than in other countries.
China's rapid deployment of increasingly advanced nuclear power plants over time is leading to significant economies of scale and learning by doing, and this suggests that Chinese enterprises will benefit from the gradual introduction of innovations in this sector in the future
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The United States has the world's largest fleet of nuclear power plants, and President Joe Biden's administration believes that a source of electricity with virtually zero emissions is crucial to curbing climate change.
But after two nuclear reactors at the Georgia Nuclear Power Plant were commissioned in 2023 and 2024 with billions of dollars over budget and years of delays, no nuclear reactors are being built in the United States.
Instead, last year, China commissioned the world's first gas-cooled fourth-generation high-temperature reactor. The China Nuclear Energy Association claims that more than 2,200 sets of "world's first equipment" were developed under the project with a total localization rate of 93.4% of domestically produced materials.