How many homes can one nuclear power plant power?

Answer 1

A typical nuclear power plant with a capacity of 1100 MWe, such as the McGuire 1 plant in North Carolina, generates around 10 billion kWh of electricity each year. (1)

A typical US household consumes around 11,200 kWh each year, according to the EIA (2)

So, based on these figures, a nuclear power plant supplies enough electricity to supply 893,000 homes.

Answer 2

The output of a nuclear power station is no different to the output from any other type of power station. It depends on the capacity of individual alternators and the number of alternator sets available.

The output is normally expressed in megawatts, not kilowatt hours, because we are mainly interested in the rate at which the alternators produce energy -i.e. the power of the alternators. Large alternators have capacities in the hundreds of megawatts. The number of kilowatt hours (or, in practice, gigawatt hours) depends on how long each alternator is running, so is of academic interest only.

Answer 3

Nuclear power provides about 20 percent in the US and 15 percent world wide. So take the total number of houses and multiply by 0.2 in the US, or 0.15 world wide. In reality, all houses receive some nuclear power, if they are connected into the main distribution grid system, but you can't separate it out, all the electricity generated goes into the same 'pot'

Answer 4

If we take a home consumption as 2 kW, though it is variable and will be more at times, and a nuclear plant output as 1000 MW, which is 1,000,000 kW, then it will supply 500,000 homes.

Answer 5

Depending on the amount of fuel used at once, well over a hundred.