Stitched satellite imagery showing construction at the Vogtle 3 and 4 sites in 2013 and 2024. Reactors built or under construction since 2013 Under construction Reactors at Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia Satellite image by Google, January 2013 Satellite image by Vexcel, April 2024 Source: World Nuclear Association. Images by Planet Labs, Vexcel, Airbus DS via Google. The New York Times In 2013, construction began on the first two new U.S. nuclear reactors in a generation. Atomic energy was back. Or was it? Seven years late and $17 billion over budget, the reactors became two of the costliest ever built. Once again, nuclear power seemed hopeless, at least in the U.S. Yet over the same period, China built 13 similar reactors, with 33 more underway. And Beijing’s nuclear ambitions are global.

China is quickly becoming the global leader in nuclear power, with nearly as many reactors under construction as the rest of the world combined. While its dominance of solar panels and electric vehicles is well known, China is also building nuclear plants at an extraordinary pace. By 2030, China’s nuclear capacity is set to surpass that of the United States, the first country to split atoms to make electricity.

Many of China’s reactors are derived from American and French designs, yet China has overcome the construction delays and cost overruns that have bogged down Western efforts to expand nuclear power.

At the same time, China is pushing the envelope, making breakthroughs in next-generation nuclear technologies that have eluded the West. The country is also investing heavily in fusion, a potentially limitless source of clean power if anyone can figure out how to tame it.

Beijing’s ultimate objective is to become a supplier of nuclear power to the world, joining the rare few nations — including the United States, Russia, France and South Korea — that can design and export some of the most sophisticated machines ever invented.

A dome being placed on the Unit 1 reactor building of the Zhejiang San’ao nuclear power plant on Zhejiang Province, China, in 2022. Visual China Group, via Getty Images

“The Chinese are moving very, very fast,” said Mark Hibbs, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace who has written a book on China’s nuclear program. “They are very keen to show the world that their program is unstoppable.”

As the United States and China compete for global supremacy, energy has become a geopolitical battleground.