Nuclear candidate sites in California

11 sites in California that Voltane screens for new nuclear: former and retiring coal plants, nuclear plant sites and federal sites, each matched to the microreactor, SMR and large reactor profiles. Ranked by SMR match; every match is out of 100.

Candidate sites in California, ranked by SMR match

Rank	Site	Type	Micro	SMR	Large
1	Rancho Seco	Shut-down nuclear site	83.1	82.1	41.9
2	Diablo Canyon Power Plant	Existing nuclear site	74.0	70.0	65.1
3	San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station	Shut-down nuclear site	67.2	66.1	45.2
4	Stockton Cogen	Former coal plant	67.5	59.5	46.9
5	TXI Riverside Cement Power House	Former coal plant	56.8	55.8	55.3
6	GE Vallecitos Nuclear Center	Shut-down nuclear site	63.7	55.4	38.5
7	Rio Bravo Jasmin	Former coal plant	59.6	50.6	33.9
8	Rio Bravo Poso	Former coal plant	56.5	49.3	32.0
9	Colton Plant	Former coal plant	63.6	47.3	29.3
10	ACE Cogeneration Facility	Former coal plant	58.1	40.6	37.1
11	Humboldt Bay	Shut-down nuclear site	46.4	33.3	32.3

Match out of 100 to each reactor class's default profile. Screening only — not a site suitability determination.

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Signed-in Voltane Nuclear shows what each match is made of:

The factor-by-factor breakdown: transmission, population, seismic hazard, faults, flood, water, airports, dams, pipelines and data-center load
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Sources

Every match

U.S. EIA, EIA-860M monthly generator inventory — August 2026 inventory (released 2026-09-23/24); preliminary per EIA.
U.S. EIA, EIA-860 annual generator report — 2025 final, released 2026-09-10
U.S. NRC, power reactor status, decommissioning and early site permits — Checked 2026-10-04: List of Power Reactor Units (updated 2026-09-14), Power Reactor Status for the last 365 days (to 2026-10-02), decommissioning list (updated 2026-09-14), ESP pages (updated 2026-09-23)
Federal sites named for new nuclear by an official source — Official announcements 2025-04-03 to 2026-09-28
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census blocks and population — 2020 Census (P.L. 94-171 counts on 2020 blocks); files dated 2023-01..2023-03
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 urban areas and gazetteer — 2020 Census urban areas (UACE20), 2023 gazetteer release
USGS National Seismic Hazard Model — CONUS 2023 (R2), Alaska 2023 (R1), Hawaii 2021 (R1), Puerto Rico/USVI 2025 (R1)
USGS Quaternary Fault and Fold Database — Archive dated 2026-02-23 (database edition Qfaults_2020)
USGS National Atlas hydrography — 2014 edition
LBNL harmonized U.S. transmission lines — Published 2026-08-03, updated 2026-09-22
HIFLD electric power transmission lines (final public release) — HIFLD final release, data to 2024-09-30
OpenStreetMap power lines — OpenStreetMap snapshot 2026-09-28
JRC / Copernicus GloFAS river flood hazard maps — v2.1.2 (2026-01-12; tiles 2025-12-18)
FAA NASR airports — NASR cycle effective 2026-10-01
USACE National Inventory of Dams — Data last updated 2026-09-23
U.S. EIA natural gas pipelines — January 2020 update, the latest EIA has published
OpenStreetMap data centers — OpenStreetMap snapshot 2026-09-28
Epoch AI, AI data centers — File dated 2026-09-08

Matches from Voltane Nuclear's screening model of 2026-10-17. Weights are product assumptions, not NRC rules.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration; U.S. NRC; U.S. Census Bureau (not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau); U.S. Geological Survey; Federal Aviation Administration; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Transmission: LBNL (CC BY 4.0) and the SeerAI HIFLD Archive, final public release 2024-09-30 (CC BY 4.0), modified by Voltane. Flood: Baugh et al., Global river flood hazard maps, JRC / Copernicus (CC BY 4.0); contains modified Copernicus Emergency Management Service information.
Data centers: Epoch AI, "AI data centers" (CC BY 4.0), modified by Voltane; and © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0), community-mapped and not exhaustive. Map: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundaries.

Screening only — not a site suitability determination.

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