West Virginia · Former coal plant

North Branch (WV)

North Branch (WV) is a former coal plant in Grant County, West Virginia. EIA records 1 coal unit retired in 2012 (80 MW).

Screening match

Microreactor

73.4 / 100

Data for 100% of the criteria

SMR

79.0 / 100

Data for 100% of the criteria

Large reactor

77.1 / 100

Data for 100% of the criteria

Screening only — not a site suitability determination.

Location

Grant County, West Virginia. Approximate location (39.26, -79.33).

Nearby candidate sites

North Branch (WV) ranks 3rd of 10 candidate sites in West Virginia by SMR match.

Luke Mill (MD) · former coal plant · about 21 mi away
FirstEnergy Albright (WV) · former coal plant · about 23 mi away
AES Warrior Run Cogeneration Facility (MD) · former coal plant · about 39 mi away
National Energy Technology Laboratory (Morgantown) (WV) · doe / federal site · about 45 mi away
FirstEnergy Rivesville (WV) · former coal plant · about 46 mi away

Get the full screening

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
The printable site report and the CSV export
The interactive map with every layer, custom weights and Ask Voltane

Request a demo

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.

All candidate sites in West Virginia · Every coal plant screened for new nuclear · How Voltane screens sites