Carolinas-Virginia Tube Reactor nuclear power plant

Name: Carolinas-Virginia Tube Reactor nuclear power plant
Address: USA

Retired United States Very small

Gross capacity

19MW

Carolinas-Virginia Tube Reactor nuclear power plant is a pressurised heavy water reactor unit at Carolinas-Virginia Tube Reactor nuclear power plant in United States rated at 19 MW gross. It is retired. Commercial operation began 18 Dec 1963.

Specification

Reactor type	Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR)
Model	Prototype
Size	Very small20 MWe or less
Coolant	Heavy water
Moderator	Heavy water
Gross capacity	19MW
Net capacity (reference)	17MW
Net capacity (design)	17MW
Thermal output	65MWt
NSSS vendor	not on record
Typical enrichment	Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235

Ownership & location

Site	Carolinas-Virginia Tube Reactor nuclear power plant
Unit	not stated
Country	United States
Owner	Carolinas-Virginia Nuclear Power Association100%
Operator	Carolinas-Virginia Nuclear Power Association
Coordinates	34.2625, -81.3292

Fuel chain for this unit

Fuel form

Natural uranium dioxide bundles

Enrichment

Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235 no enrichment required

Who makes this assembly

BWX Technologies CANDU fuel bundles, natural uranium
Cameco Corporation CANDU fuel bundles, natural uranium
China North Nuclear Fuel Company CANDU fuel bundles
KEPCO Nuclear Fuel CANDU fuel bundles
Nuclear Power Corporation of India PHWR fuel bundles, natural uranium

Upstream

This unit runs on natural uranium, so its fuel chain has no enrichment step at all: mine → mill → conversion → fabrication. That is the shortest fuel chain of any commercial reactor type, and it makes the operator independent of the four organisations that control enrichment worldwide.

Conversion

AEOI Cameco CNNC CNNC CNNC ConverDyn Orano Rosatom TVEL Westinghouse

Fabricator capability is recorded against reactor type and model line, not against named units, utilities do not publish fuel contracts. See the fuel chain.

Timeline

1 Jan 1960Construction start
1 Mar 1963First criticality
18 Dec 1963Grid connection
18 Dec 1963Commercial operation
10 Jan 1967Permanent shutdown

Other Prototype units

5 units worldwide share this model designation.

Unit	Country	Status	Gross MW
BR3 nuclear power plant 3	Belgium	Retired	12
KNK II nuclear power plant	Germany	Retired	21
Kalpakkam nuclear power plant PFBR	India	Under construction	500
Pathfinder nuclear power plant	United States	Retired	63

Sources

Global Nuclear Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, August 2026 release , CC BY 4.0 · retrieved 2026-09-06 · this unit last researched by GEM on 2024-05-27
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