Nuclear power plant in Colón, Panama. Approximate location 9.2647, -79.92701.
NuclearColónPanamapressurized water reactor
MH-1A nuclear power plant is a 10 MW nuclear power plant in Colón, Panama. It is operated by Department of Defense; US Army Corps of Engineers [100%]. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 23k homes (estimated). It ranks #19 of 21 Panama power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1968, it is around 58 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, nuclear supplies about 0.0% of Panama's electricity; the national grid averages 221 gCO₂/kWh (68.0% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id GEM_nuc_mh1a_panam.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: GEM GNPT; fuel: GEM GNPT
Technically it is described as pressurized water reactor. Nuclear plants split uranium to raise steam with no direct CO₂; they run as steady baseload with very high capacity factors and the longest operating lifetimes of any thermal plant.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Operated by Department of Defense; US Army Corps of Engineers [100%].
This nuclear plant uses heat from nuclear fission to raise steam for a turbine-generator. It sits in a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 9.3°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
Panama has 1 nuclear power plant in this dataset, together about 10 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 9.2647, -79.92701 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
MH-1A nuclear power plant is a 10 MW nuclear power plant in Colón, Panama, commissioned in 1968.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 22,525 homes (estimated).
MH-1A nuclear power plant is operated by Department of Defense; US Army Corps of Engineers [100%].
