Western countries must follow the lead of South Korea and China by standardising and replicating reactor designs to bring down costs and the time it takes to see them operating, a report by business consultancy McKinsey says.

The report, titled Nuclear power: A renaissance in the making said that nuclear capacity was expected to at least double by 2050, and potentially triple to reach 1200 GW. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nuclear capacity today stands at 379 GW.

McKinsey, a New York-based global management consulting firm, said that momentum for nuclear power was stronger in Asia than in Western economies, with China accounting for half of new nuclear power coming online. The report said China would soon overtake France in terms of capacity, and the US by 2035.

The report also highlighted a stark contrast in the costs of bringing reactors online between the West and Asia.