McGuire nuclear power plant
McGuire nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in United States with 2 operating units totalling 2,430 MW gross. The site has 2 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PWR | WH 4LP (ICECND) | 1,215 | 1981 | |
| Unit 2 | PWR | WH 4LP (ICECND) | 1,215 | 1984 |
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.
McGuire nuclear power plant 1
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Westinghouse 4-loop |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,215MW |
| Net capacity | 1,158MW |
| Thermal output | 3,411MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Westinghouse Electric Company |
| Owner | Duke Energy Corp100% |
| Operator | Duke Energy |
| Construction start | 1 Apr 1971 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 8 Aug 1981 |
| Grid connection | 12 Sep 1981 |
| Commercial operation | 1 Dec 1981 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for McGuire nuclear power plant 1
McGuire nuclear power plant 2
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Westinghouse 4-loop |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,215MW |
| Net capacity | 1,158MW |
| Thermal output | 3,411MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Westinghouse Electric Company |
| Owner | Duke Energy Corp100% |
| Operator | Duke Energy |
| Construction start | 1 Apr 1971 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 8 May 1983 |
| Grid connection | 23 May 1983 |
| Commercial operation | 1 Mar 1984 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for McGuire nuclear power plant 2
McGuire nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity McGuire nuclear power plant is the 12th largest of 54 operating nuclear sites in the United States, holding 2% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 62nd of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 1981 and 1984; the median unit is 43.5 years old, younger than the median of 45.0 in the United States.
The 2 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 10.5 to 12.1 years (median 11.3) 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 Catawba nuclear power plant (44 km), Virgil C Summer nuclear power plant (131 km) and H. B. Robinson nuclear power plant (135 km).
2 operating units are rated differently now from their design net capacities: Unit 1 -1.9% and Unit 2 -1.9%.
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1971 | 1981 | 10.5 | 7.3 (1980s) |
| Unit 2 | 1971 | 1983 | 12.1 | 7.3 (1980s) |
Nearest tracked nuclear sites
| Site | Country | Distance | Operating GW gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catawba nuclear power plant | United States | 44 km | 2.4 |
| Virgil C Summer nuclear power plant | United States | 131 km | 1.0 |
| H. B. Robinson nuclear power plant | United States | 135 km | 0.8 |
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 McGuire 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 | North Carolina, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35.4331, -80.9486 |
| Elevation | about 245 mabove sea level |
| Setting | About 270 km from the sea |
| Region | Northern 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 | Duke Energy Corp |
|---|---|
| Operators | Duke Energy |
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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