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.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PWR | WH 3LP (DRYAMB) | 918 | 1977 | |
| Unit 2 | 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
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Westinghouse 3-loop |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 918MW |
| Net capacity | 874MW |
| Thermal output | 2,775MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Westinghouse Electric Company |
| Owner | Alabama Power Co100% |
| Operator | Southern Nuclear Operating Company |
| Construction start | 1 Oct 1970 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 9 Aug 1977 |
| Grid connection | 18 Aug 1977 |
| Commercial operation | 1 Dec 1977 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant 1
Joseph M Farley nuclear power plant 2
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Westinghouse 3-loop |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 928MW |
| Net capacity | 883MW |
| Thermal output | 2,775MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Westinghouse Electric Company |
| Owner | Alabama Power Co100% |
| Operator | Southern Nuclear Operating Company |
| Construction start | 1 Oct 1970 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 5 May 1981 |
| Grid connection | 25 May 1981 |
| Commercial operation | 30 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
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1970 | 1977 | 6.9 | 5.4 (1970s) |
| Unit 2 | 1970 | 1981 | 10.6 | 7.3 (1980s) |
Nearest tracked nuclear sites
| Site | Country | Distance | Operating GW gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edwin I Hatch nuclear power plant | United States | 274 km | 1.8 |
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 Joseph M Farley 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 | Alabama, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 31.2231, -85.1116 |
| Elevation | about 60 mabove sea level |
| Setting | About 110 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 | Alabama Power Co |
|---|---|
| Operators | Southern Nuclear Operating Company |
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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