The Global Race for Advanced Nuclear Is On

In 2021, a coalition of organizations—Third Way, Pillsbury Law, ClearPath, Nuclear Innovation Alliance, and Clean Air Task Force—released an interactive map of advanced nuclear demonstration projects around the world at various stages of completion. Under the title, “Turning the Corner,” the map and narrative descriptions of progress on global deployment were intended to show that advanced nuclear technologies are very real—that we are now at the cusp of witnessing the commercialization of advanced reactors worldwide.

In just a few short years, there has been considerable progress on this front, with new projects emerging and ongoing projects either advancing towards or reaching completion. And more recently, commercial deals and offtake agreements for these technologies are starting to emerge (see the Google-Kairos agreement and the Amazon deal with X-energy). These developments have prompted the coalition to update the map, revealing both growing interest and movement in advanced reactor technologies globally.