Nuclear power is China’s key for transitioning to a fully renewable grid design

Between late 2016 and August 2026, China connected 27 new nuclear reactors to its grid. In the same period, the United States connected two. As Jacopo Buongiorno—professor of nuclear science and engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—tells me, “China is the world’s leader in nuclear power plant (NPP) construction.” It’s an impressive data point on its own but when you consider the greater picture, it’s even more…