Oconee nuclear power plant
Oconee nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in United States with 3 operating units totalling 2,682 MW gross. The site has 3 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PWR | B&W LLP (DRYAMB) | 891 | 1973 | |
| Unit 2 | PWR | B&W LLP (DRYAMB) | 891 | 1974 | |
| Unit 3 | PWR | B&W LLP (DRYAMB) | 900 | 1974 |
Oconee nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity Oconee nuclear power plant is the 6th largest of 54 operating nuclear sites in the United States, holding 3% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 53rd of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 1973 and 1974; the median unit is 52.0 years old, older than the median of 45.0 in the United States.
The 3 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 5.5 to 6.9 years (median 6.1) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 1970s is 5.4 years.
The nearest other tracked nuclear sites are Virgil C Summer nuclear power plant (155 km), Catawba nuclear power plant (169 km) and McGuire nuclear power plant (191 km).
3 operating units are rated differently now from their design net capacities: Unit 1 -4.5%, Unit 2 -4.4% and Unit 3 -3.2%.
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1967 | 1973 | 5.5 | 5.4 (1970s) |
| Unit 2 | 1967 | 1973 | 6.1 | 5.4 (1970s) |
| Unit 3 | 1967 | 1974 | 6.9 | 5.4 (1970s) |
Nearest tracked nuclear sites
| Site | Country | Distance | Operating GW gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virgil C Summer nuclear power plant | United States | 155 km | 1.0 |
| Catawba nuclear power plant | United States | 169 km | 2.4 |
| McGuire nuclear power plant | United States | 191 km | 2.4 |
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 Oconee 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 | 34.7939, -82.8986 |
| Elevation | about 250 mabove sea level |
| Setting | About 310 km from the sea |
| Region | Northern America |
| Units by status | Operating: 3 |
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 | Duke Energy Corp |
|---|---|
| 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