Atucha nuclear power plant
Atucha nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in Argentina with 2 operating units totalling 1,107 MW gross. The site has 7 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PHWR | PHWR KWU | 362 | 1974 | |
| Unit 2 | PHWR | PHWR KWU | 745 | 2016 | |
| Unit 3 | Shelved | PWR | Hualong One | 1,150 | - |
| Unit SMR 1 | Announced | - | ACR-300 | 300 | 2030 |
| Unit SMR 2 | Announced | - | ACR-300 | 300 | - |
| Unit SMR 3 | Announced | - | ACR-300 | 300 | - |
| Unit SMR 4 | Announced | - | ACR-300 | 300 | - |
Unit by unit
Each unit's rating, type and milestone dates as recorded by the Global Nuclear Power Tracker, with any correction we made to it. A dash or "not disclosed" means the source does not give the value.
Atucha nuclear power plant 1
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | PHWR KWU |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 362MW |
| Net capacity | 340MW |
| Thermal output | 1,179MWt |
| Enrichment | Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Owner | Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA100% |
| Operator | Nucleoelectrica Argentina |
| Construction start | 1 Jun 1968 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 13 Jan 1974 |
| Grid connection | 19 Mar 1974 |
| Commercial operation | 24 Jun 1974 |
Atucha nuclear power plant 2
| Reactor type | Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | PHWR KWU |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 745MW |
| Net capacity | 693MW |
| Thermal output | 2,160MWt |
| Enrichment | Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Owner | Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA100% |
| Operator | Nucleoelectrica Argentina |
| Construction start | 13 Jul 1981 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 2 Jun 2014 |
| Grid connection | 24 Jun 2014 |
| Commercial operation | 25 May 2016 |
Atucha nuclear power plant 3 Shelved
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Hualong One |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,150MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Owner | China National Nuclear Corp100% |
| Operator | Nucleoelectrica Argentina |
| Milestones | no dates on record |
|---|
Atucha nuclear power plant SMR 1 Announced
| Reactor type | small modular reactor |
|---|---|
| Model | ACR-300 |
| Size class | Small |
| Gross capacity | 300MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | not established |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Commercial operation | 1 Jan 2030 |
|---|
Atucha nuclear power plant SMR 2 Announced
| Reactor type | small modular reactor |
|---|---|
| Model | ACR-300 |
| Size class | Small |
| Gross capacity | 300MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | not established |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Milestones | no dates on record |
|---|
Atucha nuclear power plant SMR 3 Announced
| Reactor type | small modular reactor |
|---|---|
| Model | ACR-300 |
| Size class | Small |
| Gross capacity | 300MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | not established |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Milestones | no dates on record |
|---|
Atucha nuclear power plant SMR 4 Announced
| Reactor type | small modular reactor |
|---|---|
| Model | ACR-300 |
| Size class | Small |
| Gross capacity | 300MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | not established |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Milestones | no dates on record |
|---|
Atucha nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity Atucha nuclear power plant is the 1st largest of 2 operating nuclear sites in Argentina, holding 63% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 138th of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 1974 and 2016; the median unit is 31.0 years old, younger than the median of 42.0 in Argentina.
The 2 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 5.8 to 32.9 years (median 19.4) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 2010s is 5.9 years.
No other nuclear site with an exact position in this dataset lies within 300 km.
2 operating units are rated differently now from their design net capacities: Unit 1 +6.6% and Unit 2 +0.1%.
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1968 | 1974 | 5.8 | 5.4 (1970s) |
| Unit 2 | 1981 | 2014 | 32.9 | 5.9 (2010s) |
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 Atucha 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 | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | -33.9670, -59.2095 |
| Elevation | about 25 mabove sea level |
| Setting | About 70 km from the sea |
| Region | Latin America and the Caribbean |
| Units by status | Operating: 2 Shelved: 1 Announced: 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 | Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA China National Nuclear Corp |
|---|---|
| Operators | Nucleoelectrica Argentina |
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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