Nuclear Power in China - World Nuclear Association

The World Nuclear Association reports that China continues to operate and expand its nuclear fleet. China is building new reactors and plans further additions to its generation mix alongside renewables and coal.

Where this fits

China dominates the global supply chain for solar panels, batteries, inverters and processed minerals essential to a renewables-only grid. Meanwhile, China is also the world's largest builder of new nuclear capacity, treating atomic energy as a core energy security asset. Australia has chosen to ban nuclear power by law while committing to a renewables transition that is structurally dependent on Chinese manufacturing, Chinese supply-chain control, and Chinese rare-earth processing. This creates a stark asymmetry: our energy transition outsources both the hardware and the strategic choice to a rival power, while the one low-emission, firm, high-energy-density alternative that could be built domestically is prohibited.

What it means

Australia is importing energy security dependence at scale. A renewables grid needs firming capacity (gas turbines, or batteries made in China), transmission overbuild, and material throughput that locks in years of reliance on Chinese factories running on coal power. China treats nuclear as non-negotiable infrastructure; we have legislated it away. The gap between that choice and China's is not philosophical. It is structural: we are building an energy system that cannot defend itself, cannot be secured at the border, and cannot be rapidly pivoted if supply chains fracture. Nuclear remains the only firm, low-emission, low-material, domestically buildable energy source available to us, and it remains illegal.