Waterford nuclear power plant
Waterford nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in United States with 1 operating unit totalling 1,250 MW gross. The site has 1 unit on record in total.
Units
Waterford nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity Waterford nuclear power plant is the 40th largest of 54 operating nuclear sites in the United States, holding 1% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 129th of 172 worldwide.
Its operating unit started up in 1985; the unit is 41.0 years old, younger than the median of 45.0 in the United States.
The one unit with both construction and grid dates on record took 10.3 years 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 River Bend nuclear power plant (118 km) and Grand Gulf nuclear power plant (230 km).
The current net rating of Unit 3 differs from its design net capacity by +5.8% (1,104 MW at design, 1,168 MW now).
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 3 | 1974 | 1985 | 10.3 | 7.3 (1980s) |
Nearest tracked nuclear sites
| Site | Country | Distance | Operating GW gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| River Bend nuclear power plant | United States | 118 km | 1.0 |
| Grand Gulf nuclear power plant | United States | 230 km | 1.5 |
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 Waterford 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 | Louisiana, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 29.9953, -90.4716 |
| Elevation | about 15 mabove sea level |
| Setting | 12.9 km from the sea |
| Region | Northern America |
| Units by status | Operating: 1 |
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 | Entergy Louisiana Inc |
|---|---|
| Operators | Entergy Nuclear Operations |
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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