“Over the next 10 years there will be around a dozen units, which will need to be decommissioned. These are RBMK units. Some of them may have their operating loves slightly extended, but the vast majority will have to be decommissioned, as they say, in real time. Therefore, we need to build 17 units by 2035." Likhachev said

"For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, about 1.7 dollars are now going into clean energy. Five years ago, this ratio was one-to-one," Birol said.

China is ranked first for the number of nuclear power reactors under construction; it has 22 reactor units under construction, concentrated along the east and south coasts.

"China is one of the IAEA's most important partners and a global leader in nuclear energy,"

China currently has the second largest number of nuclear plants globally comprising 56 reactors, with 20 units under construction, which will account for 10-15% of power production by 2035.

France, which relies on nuclear for the bulk of its electricity supply, has been pushing to allow a greater role for the technology in the energy transition.

Kudankulam NPP in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu will comprise six units with VVER-1000 reactors. Work began following an intergovernmental agreement between India and Russia signed in 1988. The agreement for construction of Tianwan units 7&8 was signed by Russia and China in 1918 and commissioning is scheduled for 2026-2027.

US technologies at ZNPP largely concern Westinghouse-supplied nuclear fuel, a used fuel dry storage facility built by Holtec and software related to operation of the six units, none of which is of any interest to Rosatom, according to the large number of Russian scientists and nuclear experts who commented on the DOE letter.

Rosatom said that the design met "all post-Fukushima safety requirements for the modern NPP design - this is a compact modular nuclear power plant, featuring reduced construction time compared with large nuclear power plants".

Japan has been a major contributor to International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), under construction in France, which aims for first plasma in 2035.