South Texas nuclear power plant
South Texas nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in United States with 2 operating units totalling 2,708 MW gross. The site has 4 units on record in total.
Units
| Unit | Status | Type | Model | Gross MW | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | PWR | WH 4LP (DRYAMB) | 1,354 | 1988 | |
| Unit 2 | PWR | WH 4LP (DRYAMB) | 1,354 | 1989 | |
| Unit 3 | Cancelled | BWR | - | 1,358 | - |
| Unit 4 | Cancelled | BWR | - | 1,350 | - |
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.
South Texas nuclear power plant 1
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Westinghouse 4-loop |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,354MW |
| Net capacity | 1,280MW |
| Thermal output | 3,853MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Westinghouse Electric Company |
| Owner | Constellation Energy Corp100% |
| Operator | STP Nuclear Operating |
| Construction start | 22 Dec 1975 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 8 Mar 1988 |
| Grid connection | 30 Mar 1988 |
| Commercial operation | 25 Aug 1988 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for South Texas nuclear power plant 1
South Texas nuclear power plant 2
| Reactor type | Pressurised water reactor (PWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | Westinghouse 4-loop |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,354MW |
| Net capacity | 1,280MW |
| Thermal output | 3,853MWt |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | Westinghouse Electric Company |
| Owner | Constellation Energy Corp100% |
| Operator | STP Nuclear Operating |
| Construction start | 22 Dec 1975 |
|---|---|
| First criticality | 12 Mar 1989 |
| Grid connection | 11 Apr 1989 |
| Commercial operation | 19 Jun 1989 |
Live status, outage record and fuel chain for South Texas nuclear power plant 2
South Texas nuclear power plant 3 Cancelled
| Reactor type | Boiling water reactor (BWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | not disclosed |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,358MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Cancelled | 2018 |
| Owner | Houston Light & Power Co100% |
| Milestones | no dates on record |
|---|
South Texas nuclear power plant 4 Cancelled
| Reactor type | Boiling water reactor (BWR) |
|---|---|
| Model | not disclosed |
| Size class | Large |
| Gross capacity | 1,350MW |
| Net capacity | not disclosed |
| Thermal output | not disclosed |
| Enrichment | 3–5% U-235 |
| NSSS vendor | not on record |
| Cancelled | 2018 |
| Owner | Houston Light & Power Co100% |
| Milestones | no dates on record |
|---|
South Texas nuclear power plant in context
By gross operating capacity South Texas nuclear power plant is the 5th largest of 54 operating nuclear sites in the United States, holding 3% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 52nd of 172 worldwide.
Its operating units started up between 1988 and 1989; the median unit is 37.5 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 12.3 to 13.3 years (median 12.8) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 1980s is 7.3 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 +2.4% and Unit 2 +2.4%.
Build time by unit
| Unit | Construction start | Grid connection | Years | Fleet median, same decade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | 1975 | 1988 | 12.3 | 7.3 (1980s) |
| Unit 2 | 1975 | 1989 | 13.3 | 7.3 (1980s) |
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 South Texas 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 | Texas, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 28.7950, -96.0481 |
| Elevation | about 25 mabove sea level |
| Setting | 15.1 km from the sea |
| Region | Northern America |
| Units by status | Operating: 2 Cancelled: 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 | Constellation Energy Corp Houston Light & Power Co |
|---|---|
| Operators | STP Nuclear Operating |
Put this plant on your own page: embed a card, or compare it with another plant.
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