Catawba nuclear power plant
Catawba nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in United States with 2 operating units totalling 2,376 MW gross. The site has 2 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PWR | WH 4LP (ICECND) | 1,188 | 1985 | |
| Unit 2 | PWR | WH 4LP (ICECND) | 1,188 | 1986 |
Catawba nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity Catawba nuclear power plant is the 18th largest of 54 operating nuclear sites in the United States, holding 2% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 70th of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 1985 and 1986; the median unit is 40.5 years old, younger than the median of 45.0 in the United States.
The 2 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 10.7 to 12.0 years (median 11.4) 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 McGuire nuclear power plant (44 km), Virgil C Summer nuclear power plant (87 km) and H. B. Robinson nuclear power plant (110 km).
2 operating units are rated differently now from their design net capacities: Unit 1 +1.3% and Unit 2 +0.4%.
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1974 | 1985 | 10.7 | 7.3 (1980s) |
| Unit 2 | 1974 | 1986 | 12.0 | 7.3 (1980s) |
Nearest tracked nuclear sites
| Site | Country | Distance | Operating GW gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| McGuire nuclear power plant | United States | 44 km | 2.4 |
| Virgil C Summer nuclear power plant | United States | 87 km | 1.0 |
| H. B. Robinson nuclear power plant | United States | 110 km | 0.8 |
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 Catawba 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 | South Carolina, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35.0514, -81.0694 |
| Elevation | about 185 mabove sea level |
| Setting | About 250 km from the sea |
| Region | Northern America |
| Units by status | Operating: 2 |
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 | North Carolina Electric Membership Corp North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 1 |
|---|---|
| Operators | Duke Energy |
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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