North Carolina · Former coal plant

Riverbend

Riverbend is a former coal plant in Gaston County, North Carolina. EIA records 4 coal units retired in 2013 (466 MW).

Screening match

Microreactor

79.3 / 100

Data for 100% of the criteria

SMR

78.8 / 100

Data for 100% of the criteria

Large reactor

68.8 / 100

Data for 100% of the criteria

Screening only — not a site suitability determination.

Location

Gaston County, North Carolina. Approximate location (35.36, -80.97).

Nearby candidate sites

Riverbend ranks 7th of 24 candidate sites in North Carolina by SMR match.

McGuire Nuclear Station (NC) · existing nuclear site · about 5 mi away
G G Allen (NC) · former coal plant · about 12 mi away
Marshall (NC) (NC) · retiring coal plant · about 16 mi away
Catawba Nuclear Station (SC) · existing nuclear site · about 22 mi away
Kannapolis Energy Partners (NC) · former coal plant · about 22 mi away

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Sources

This site

U.S. Energy Information Administration, EIA-860M — EIA-860M August 2026

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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