Nuclear power plant in North Pyongan, North Korea. Approximate location 39.7974, 125.7549.
NuclearNorth PyonganNorth KoreaMAGNOXgas-cooled reactor
Nyongbyon nuclear power plant is a 85 MW nuclear power plant in North Pyongan, North Korea. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 191k homes (estimated). It ranks #28 of 36 North Korea power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1985, it is around 41 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, nuclear supplies about 0.0% of North Korea's electricity; the national grid averages 341 gCO₂/kWh (63.4% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id GEM_nuc_nyongbyon_north.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 5 MW for Nyongbyon nuclear power plant, but it is not used as the public primary value until scope is verified (unit vs operating vs installed/project total).
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 gas-cooled 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.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
This nuclear plant uses heat from nuclear fission to raise steam for a turbine-generator. It sits in a monsoon hot-summer continental climate (Köppen Dwa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 39.8°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Climate zone & typical temperatures: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid).
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 a mild atmospheric environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C2 — Low), with thermal cycling 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.
The #3 largest nuclear power plant of 3 in North Korea by capacity.
North Korea has 3 nuclear power plants in this dataset, together about 2,285 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 39.7974, 125.7549 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Nyongbyon nuclear power plant is a 85 MW nuclear power plant in North Pyongan, North Korea, commissioned in 1985.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 191,468 homes (estimated).
