Palo Verde in Arizona has been America's largest nuclear plant for nearly 40 years. With Vogtle Units 3 and 4 now online, Georgia's Vogtle Electric Generating Plant has leapfrogged into second place. Here is the full 2026 ranking of every major US nuclear facility.
The Largest US Nuclear Plants in 2026
Nuclear power is in a strange moment in America. The United States still operates more reactors than any other country—94 across 54 active sites—and they produce close to 19 percent of all US electricity and roughly half of the country's emissions-free generation. But until 2023, no new commercial reactor had come online in the United States since the late 1990s.
That changed when Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia began commercial operation in 2023 and 2024. They are the first new US reactors of the 21st century and the only AP1000 reactors operating in the country. With those units online, the ranking of America's biggest nuclear stations now looks like this:
| Rank | Plant | State | Operator | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vogtle Electric Generating Plant | Georgia | Georgia Power | 4,536 MW |
| 2 | Palo Verde Generating Station | Arizona | Arizona Public Service | 3,942 MW |
| 3 | Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant | Alabama | Tennessee Valley Authority | 3,458 MW |
| 4 | Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station | Pennsylvania | Constellation Energy | 2,772 MW |
| 5 | South Texas Nuclear Generating Station | Texas | NRG / STP Nuclear Operating | 2,708 MW |
| 6 | Oconee Nuclear Station | South Carolina | Duke Energy | 2,538 MW |
| 7 | Sequoyah Nuclear Plant | Tennessee | Tennessee Valley Authority | 2,447 MW |
| 8 | Watts Bar Nuclear Plant | Tennessee | Tennessee Valley Authority | 2,330 MW |
| 9 | Limerick Generating Station | Pennsylvania | Constellation Energy | 2,317 MW |
| 10 | McGuire Nuclear Station | North Carolina | Duke Energy | 2,316 MW |
| 11 | Catawba Nuclear Station | South Carolina | Duke Energy | 2,258 MW |
| 12 | Diablo Canyon Power Plant | California | Pacific Gas and Electric | 2,240 MW |
Vogtle Takes the Crown—At Last
For nearly four decades, Arizona's Palo Verde Generating Station was the undisputed largest nuclear plant in the United States and one of the few in the world not located near a major body of cooling water. Palo Verde uses treated municipal wastewater for cooling and pumps it 35 miles uphill from Phoenix.
That changed in 2024 when Vogtle Unit 4 began commercial operation alongside its sister Unit 3, which started up in 2023. Combined with the original Units 1 and 2 (which date to 1987–1989), Vogtle now totals roughly 4,536 MW, edging Palo Verde by a few hundred megawatts.
The new Vogtle units are the only AP1000 reactors in the United States—Westinghouse's modern Gen III+ design. Their construction was famously over budget and behind schedule: total project cost ballooned from $14 billion to over $30 billion, and the schedule slipped by roughly seven years. The lessons learned will shape every new US reactor proposed in the second half of the 2020s.
The TVA Story
The Tennessee Valley Authority is the only US utility with three plants in the top 10. Browns Ferry in Alabama, Sequoyah, and Watts Bar in Tennessee together represent more than 8 GW of nuclear baseload. Watts Bar Unit 2 was the last new US reactor to enter service before Vogtle—and that was back in 2016.
Diablo Canyon: Saved at the Last Minute
Diablo Canyon in California was scheduled to close in 2024–2025. Then in 2022, California's legislature reversed course and authorized PG&E to seek a license extension, citing grid reliability and decarbonization goals. The plant now has approval to operate through 2030 at minimum. It is the last operating commercial nuclear plant in California.
What This Means for the Grid
Nuclear is back on the menu. A growing list of states—Wyoming, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Michigan—have either funded small modular reactor projects, signed agreements to extend existing plant licenses, or repealed prior nuclear moratoria. Even Three Mile Island Unit 1 is being restarted by Constellation under a power purchase agreement with Microsoft.
Capacity is being added without new plants. Many of the reactors above have undergone "uprates"—engineering changes that squeeze 5–20% more megawatts out of existing equipment. Browns Ferry alone has gained over 700 MW of capacity through uprates since the 2000s.
Closures hit hard. Indian Point (NY, closed 2021) and Palisades (MI, closed 2022) remain the most recent major shutdowns. New York's grid emissions visibly rose after Indian Point's closure. Palisades is now being considered for restart, which would be a first in US history.
Explore Every US Plant
StatsPanda's interactive power plant map includes every major US nuclear plant plus 200+ facilities worldwide. Filter by fuel type to see only nuclear, or compare US plants against the world's largest in our global power plant ranking.
Methodology
Capacities reflect installed net summer nameplate from the US Energy Information Administration's Form EIA-860 and the Global Power Plant Database, with Vogtle adjusted for the addition of Units 3 (Apr 2023) and 4 (Apr 2024). "Plant" here refers to all reactors at a single site under a single operator. Capacities for some multi-unit plants vary by source within ±50 MW depending on uprate timing.
