Blayais nuclear power plant
Blayais nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in France with 4 operating units totalling 3,804 MW gross. The site has 4 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PWR | CP1 | 951 | 1981 | |
| Unit 2 | PWR | CP1 | 951 | 1983 | |
| Unit 3 | PWR | CP1 | 951 | 1983 | |
| Unit 4 | PWR | CP1 | 951 | 1983 |
Blayais nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity Blayais nuclear power plant is the 8th largest of 18 operating nuclear sites in France, holding 6% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 27th of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 1981 and 1983; the median unit is 43.0 years old, older than the median of 41.0 in France.
The 4 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 4.4 to 5.5 years (median 5.2) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 1980s is 7.3 years.
The nearest other tracked nuclear sites are Civaux nuclear power plant (170 km), Golfech nuclear power plant (176 km) and Chinon nuclear power plant (229 km).
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1977 | 1981 | 4.4 | 7.3 (1980s) |
| Unit 2 | 1977 | 1982 | 5.5 | 7.3 (1980s) |
| Unit 4 | 1978 | 1983 | 5.1 | 7.3 (1980s) |
| Unit 3 | 1978 | 1983 | 5.4 | 7.3 (1980s) |
Nearest tracked nuclear sites
| Site | Country | Distance | Operating GW gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civaux nuclear power plant | France | 170 km | 3.1 |
| Golfech nuclear power plant | France | 176 km | 2.7 |
| Chinon nuclear power plant | France | 229 km | 3.8 |
How these are worked out: ranks use gross operating capacity; ages count from the start-up year on record, as on the age page; build times run from construction start to grid connection, as on the build-times page; ratings are the tracker's net and design net capacity, as on the uprates page. Distances are straight-line between exact positions, so a site with only an approximate position gets none. A unit missing a date or a rating is left out of the figure that needs it.
Earthquakes nearby
Loading the latest USGS check…
| Time (UTC) | Mag | Depth | Epicentre | Distance |
|---|
Magnitude 4.0 and above within 200 km of Blayais nuclear power plant's listed coordinates, past 30 days. This is distance, not shaking: it says nothing about damage or any change in operation. Every plant.
| Location | Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 45.2560, -0.6932 |
| Elevation | about 5 mabove sea level |
| Setting | On the sea coast |
| Region | Western Europe |
| Units by status | Operating: 4 |
Elevation is read at the listed coordinates from a 30 m terrain model (SRTM 30 m). Two independent models differ by a median of 6 m across our plants and by up to about 40 m on steep or coastal ground, and a point on a shoreline can read as sea level. Distance to the water is measured to a generalised 1:10 million coastline, so a few kilometres or less is not resolved. This is context, not a design-basis or flood-risk figure.
| Owners | Electricité de France SA |
|---|---|
| Operators | Electricité de France |
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Sources
- Global Nuclear Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, August 2026 release , CC BY 4.0 · retrieved 2026-09-06
- GEM.wiki entry (further reading) , CC BY-SA 4.0, linked, not quoted
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data