Nuclear energy is experiencing a global resurgence. In the U.S. and Europe, a long-wary public has started to warm once again to the sector. Taiwan, which shuttered its last nuclear power plant last May, is looking to restart at least one facility in the wake of the energy crisis spurred by the Iran war. Fifteen years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan is now hoping to double its nuclear fleet over the next decade and a half. But which countries lead the way on this source of carbon-free energy? It depends on how you look at it. The U.S., the longtime global leader on nuclear, is still at the top of the heap in terms of pure electrical output, followed by China, according to data from think tank Ember. While France is third in terms of production, it gets the highest share of its needs met by atomic power, the result of a push in the 1970s to make the country energy independent. Russia — which completed the world's first nuclear power plant under the Soviets in 1954 — is fourth in terms of total electricity. South Korea rounds out the top five. As for what's in store, China is developing new reactors at a far faster rate than any other country. The nation has 60 nuclear reactors in operation, and it's actively building another three dozen or so. To put it in context: Nearly half of all nuclear power plants under construction worldwide are in China. No other country is even in double digits. That growth is evident in recent electricity-generation figures. China produced 37 more terawatt-hours from nuclear last year than it did in 2024, bringing it to a total of 488 TWh in 2025. At the rate the country is building new facilities, its reactor fleet should eclipse that of the U.S. by 2030. Still, the U.S. is trying to kick-start its stagnant nuclear industry and retain its position at the top. Not only is public sentiment toward nuclear on the upswing in America, but also the energy source has broad support from both parties. President Donald Trump wants the iconic nuclear firm Westinghouse to start building 10 of its AP-1000s before 2030, for example. The Biden administration, for its part, issued a loan to fund the first nuclear restart in U.S. history at the Palisades facility in Michigan, and through the Inflation Reduction Act introduced a nuclear-energy tax credit, which Trump kept in place, unlike incentives for wind and solar. It remains to be seen whether these efforts — and many others at the federal and state levels — will amount to a wave of new nuclear construction in the U.S. No new large-scale nuclear facilities are underway in the country today. All in all, the world generated a record amount of nuclear power in 2025 — and it's looking like that number will only go up in the years to come.