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Nuclear's Quiet Comeback: SMRs, Fusion, and the Build-Out That's Actually Happening

Nuclear power is experiencing a genuine but uneven resurgence: China is building 25 reactors simultaneously and quietly commissioned the world's first Gen IV reactor in 2023, Belgium formally reversed its phase-out law in 2025, and global capacity is on track to grow modestly from ~400 GWe toward 450–550 GWe by 2030 — while Germany's completed phase-out demonstrably increased emissions and costs relative to a retain-and-retire-coal alternative. The central tension is whether SMRs will deliver at scale: only one commercial SMR (China's Linglong One) is near operation, IEA projections require a fivefold investment increase by 2030, and supply chain gaps in specialized forgings and qualified workforces remain unquantified. Readers focused on climate strategy should weigh the strong institutional consensus that nuclear is necessary for net-zero against independent modelling showing renewables-plus-flexibility dominate under realistic financing, while those focused on execution should note that grid readiness, indigenous consent obligations, and precarious subcontracted labor are the structural bottlenecks that vendor roadmaps consistently omit.

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