Santa Maria De Garona nuclear power plant is a 466 MW nuclear power station in Burgos, Spain. It is operated by Nuclenor SA [100%]. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 1.0 million homes (estimated). It ranks #63 of 899 Spain power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1971, it is around 55 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, nuclear supplies about 18.8% of Spain's electricity; the national grid averages 154 gCO₂/kWh (74.6% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id GEM_nuc_santamariadegarona_spain.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: Wikidata P2109; fuel: GEM GNPT
At 466 MW, Santa Maria De Garona nuclear power plant is below the median nuclear plant in Spain (1,087 MW). Technically it is described as boiling 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.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Nuclenor SA [100%].
This nuclear plant uses heat from nuclear fission to raise steam for a turbine-generator. It sits in a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 42.8°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 corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with humidity / wetness 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 #9 largest nuclear power plant of 10 in Spain by capacity.
Spain has 10 nuclear power plants in this dataset, together about 11,969 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 42.77501, -3.20701 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Santa Maria De Garona nuclear power plant is a 466 MW nuclear power plant in Burgos, Spain, commissioned in 1971.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 1,049,698 homes (estimated).
Santa Maria De Garona nuclear power plant is operated by Nuclenor SA [100%].
