Steve Fetter, dean of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, supplies an answer: If the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has accurately estimated the planet’s economically accessible uranium resources, reactors could run more than 200 years at current rates of consumption.

In its 2020 edition of Energy, Electricity and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period up to 2050, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) high case projection has global nuclear generating capacity increasing from 392 GWe in 2019 to 475 GWe by 2030, 622 by 2040 and 715 by 2050.

The United States
The United States is the largest consumer of nuclear power, accounting for more than 30 percent of the world’s nuclear power consumption in 2020. In this year, nuclear energy consumption in the U.S. totaled 7.4 exajoules.

Pakistan plans on constructing 32 nuclear power plants by 2050 and envisions 40,000 MW of nuclear power generation.

Nuclear is a zero-emission clean energy source. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the United States avoided more than 476 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2019. That’s the equivalent of removing 100 million cars from the road and more than all other clean energy sources combined.

Top 15 Nuclear Generating Countries – by Generation

Deceased (1936–2021)
Abdul Qadeer Khan/Living or Deceased

As of 2017, nuclear power in Pakistan is provided by 5 commercial nuclear power plants. Pakistan is the first Muslim country in the world to construct and operate civil nuclear power plants. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), the scientific and nuclear governmental agency, is solely responsible for operating these power plants.

It was reported to cost PKR 51.46 billion ($ 490 million, with $20 million of this financed by China). A safeguards agreement with the IAEA was signed in 2006 and grid connection was in March 2011, with commercial operation in May. Upgrades have added 5 MWe since (to 330 MWe gross).

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons capabilities have arisen independently of its civil nuclear fuel cycle, using indigenous uranium. Because Pakistan is outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, due to its weapons program, it is largely excluded from trade in nuclear plant or materials, which hinders its development of civil nuclear energy.

Pakistan is the first Muslim majority country in the world to construct and operate civil nuclear power plants. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), the scientific and nuclear governmental agency, is solely responsible for operating these power plants.