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Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant

Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in United States with 2 operating units totalling 1,846 MW gross. The site has 2 units on record in total.

Operating2circle area ∝ site capacity Coastlines, borders and lakes: Natural Earth (1:10 million, public domain), which is generalised, so a coastal plant can sit a couple of kilometres off its true shoreline. Site positions: Global Nuclear Power Tracker.
Units on record
2
Operating
2
Operating capacity
1,846MW

Units

UnitStatusTypeModelGross MWOnline
Unit 1 Operating PWR WH 3LP (DRYAMB) 918 1977
Unit 2 Operating PWR WH 3LP (DRYAMB) 928 1981

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.

Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant 1 Operating

Reactor typePressurised water reactor (PWR)
ModelWestinghouse 3-loop
Size classLarge
Gross capacity918MW
Net capacity874MW
Thermal output2,775MWt
Enrichment3–5% U-235
NSSS vendorWestinghouse Electric Company
OwnerAlabama Power Co100%
OperatorSouthern Nuclear Operating Company
Construction start1 Oct 1970
First criticality9 Aug 1977
Grid connection18 Aug 1977
Commercial operation1 Dec 1977

Live status, outage record and fuel chain for Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant 1

Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant 2 Operating

Reactor typePressurised water reactor (PWR)
ModelWestinghouse 3-loop
Size classLarge
Gross capacity928MW
Net capacity883MW
Thermal output2,775MWt
Enrichment3–5% U-235
NSSS vendorWestinghouse Electric Company
OwnerAlabama Power Co100%
OperatorSouthern Nuclear Operating Company
Construction start1 Oct 1970
First criticality5 May 1981
Grid connection25 May 1981
Commercial operation30 Jul 1981

Live status, outage record and fuel chain for Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant 2

Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant in context

By gross operating capacity Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant is the 29th largest of 54 operating nuclear sites in the United States, holding 2% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 101st of 172 worldwide.

Its operating units started up between 1977 and 1981; the median unit is 47.0 years old, older than the median of 45.0 in the United States.

The 2 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 6.9 to 10.6 years (median 8.8) 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 Edwin I Hatch nuclear power plant (274 km).

2 operating units are rated differently now from their design net capacities: Unit 1 +5.4% and Unit 2 +6.5%.

Build time by unit

UnitConstruction startGrid connectionYearsFleet median, same decade
Unit 1197019776.95.4 (1970s)
Unit 21970198110.67.3 (1980s)

Nearest tracked nuclear sites

SiteCountryDistanceOperating GW gross
Edwin I Hatch nuclear power plantUnited States274 km1.8

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.

Site detail
LocationAlabama, United States
Coordinates31.2231, -85.1116
Elevationabout 60 mabove sea level
SettingAbout 110 km from the sea
RegionNorthern America
Units by status
Operating: 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 & operators
Owners
Alabama Power Co
Operators
Southern Nuclear Operating Company

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Sources

How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data

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