Bugey nuclear power plant
Bugey nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in France with 4 operating units totalling 3,724 MW gross. The site has 7 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 2 | PWR | CP0 | 945 | 1979 | |
| Unit 3 | PWR | CP0 | 945 | 1979 | |
| Unit 4 | PWR | CP0 | 917 | 1979 | |
| Unit 5 | PWR | CP0 | 917 | 1980 | |
| Unit 1 | Retired | GCR | Uranium Naturel Graphite Gaz | 555 | 1972 |
| Unit 6 | Announced | PWR | EPR2 | 1,650 | - |
| Unit 7 | Announced | PWR | EPR2 | 1,650 | - |
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.
Bugey nuclear power plant 2
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | CP0 |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 945MW |
| Net capacity | 910MW |
| Thermal output | 2,785MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Framatome |
| Owner | Electricité de France SA100% |
| Operator | Electricité de France |
| Construction start | 1 Nov 1972 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 20 Apr 1978 |
| Grid connection | 10 May 1978 |
| Commercial operation | 1 Mar 1979 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for Bugey nuclear power plant 2
Bugey nuclear power plant 3
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | CP0 |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 945MW |
| Net capacity | 910MW |
| Thermal output | 2,785MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Framatome |
| Owner | Electricité de France SA100% |
| Operator | Electricité de France |
| Construction start | 1 Sep 1973 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 31 Aug 1978 |
| Grid connection | 21 Sep 1978 |
| Commercial operation | 1 Mar 1979 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for Bugey nuclear power plant 3
Bugey nuclear power plant 4
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | CP0 |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 917MW |
| Net capacity | 880MW |
| Thermal output | 2,785MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Framatome |
| Owner | Electricité de France SA100% |
| Operator | Electricité de France |
| Construction start | 1 Jun 1974 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 17 Feb 1979 |
| Grid connection | 8 Mar 1979 |
| Commercial operation | 1 Jul 1979 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for Bugey nuclear power plant 4
Bugey nuclear power plant 5
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | CP0 |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 917MW |
| Net capacity | 880MW |
| Thermal output | 2,785MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Framatome |
| Owner | Electricité de France SA100% |
| Operator | Electricité de France |
| Construction start | 1 Jul 1974 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 15 Jul 1979 |
| Grid connection | 31 Jul 1979 |
| Commercial operation | 3 Jan 1980 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for Bugey nuclear power plant 5
Bugey nuclear power plant 1 Retired
| Reactor type | Gas-cooled reactor (GCR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Uranium Naturel Graphite Gaz |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 555MW |
| Net capacity | 540MW |
| Thermal output | 1,954MWt |
| Enrichment | Natural uranium to 2.5–3.5% U-235no enrichment required |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Owner | Electricité de France SA100% |
| Operator | Electricité de France |
| Construction start | 1 Dec 1965 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 21 Mar 1972 |
| Grid connection | 15 Apr 1972 |
| Commercial operation | 1 Jul 1972 |
| Permanent shutdown | 27 May 1994 |
Bugey nuclear power plant 6 Announced
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | EPR2 |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,650MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Framatome |
| Owner | Electricité de France SA100% |
| Operator | Electricité de France |
| Milestones | no dates on record |
|---|
Bugey nuclear power plant 7 Announced
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | EPR2 |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,650MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Framatome |
| Owner | Electricité de France SA100% |
| Operator | Electricité de France |
| Milestones | no dates on record |
|---|
Bugey nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity Bugey nuclear power plant is the 10th largest of 18 operating nuclear sites in France, holding 6% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 32nd of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 1979 and 1980; the median unit is 47.0 years old, older than the median of 41.0 in France.
The 5 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 4.8 to 6.4 years (median 5.1) 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 St. Alban nuclear power plant (59 km), Cruas nuclear power plant (136 km) and Tricastin nuclear power plant (168 km).
4 operating units are rated differently now from their design net capacities: Unit 2 -1.1%, Unit 3 -1.1%, Unit 4 -2.2% and Unit 5 -2.2%.
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1965 | 1972 | 6.4 | 5.4 (1970s) |
| Unit 2 | 1972 | 1978 | 5.5 | 5.4 (1970s) |
| Unit 3 | 1973 | 1978 | 5.1 | 5.4 (1970s) |
| Unit 4 | 1974 | 1979 | 4.8 | 5.4 (1970s) |
| Unit 5 | 1974 | 1979 | 5.1 | 5.4 (1970s) |
Nearest tracked nuclear sites
| Site | Country | Distance | Operating GW gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Alban nuclear power plant | France | 59 km | 2.8 |
| Cruas nuclear power plant | France | 136 km | 3.8 |
| Tricastin nuclear power plant | France | 168 km | 3.8 |
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 Bugey 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 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 45.7973, 5.2706 |
| Elevation | about 215 mabove sea level |
| Setting | About 250 km from the sea |
| Region | Western Europe |
| Units by status | Operating: 4 Retired: 1 Announced: 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 | Electricité de France SA |
|---|---|
| Operators | Electricité de France |
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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