Nuclear Power Plant (Civ6)

Nuclear Power Plant
Building of the Atomic Era
Introduced in Gathering Storm
Unlocked by	Nuclear Fission
Cost
Production	480
Production	480
Maint.	3
Maint.	3
Requires
District	Industrial Zone
Infrastructure	Factory  Electronics Factory
Effects
Provides Power via Uranium. Every 1 Uranium provides 16 Power to the city. As it gets older chance of a Nuclear Accident increases.

Back to List of buildings in Civ6

The Nuclear Power Plant is an advanced production building in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm. It is the third and final power-producing building in the game; it is built in the Industrial Zone district and requires a Factory (or one of its replacements).

• Effects:
  • +4 Production
  • +3 Science
  • The Production and Science bonuses extend to all City Centers within 6 tiles of this Nuclear Power Plant's Industrial Zone
  • Converts Uranium into Power for this city and other cities whose City Centers are within 6 tiles. (Conversion rate: 1 Uranium → 16 Power)
  • +1 Citizen slot
  • +1 Production additionally per Specialist in this district
  • +1 Great Engineer point per turn
  • +2 Culture and +4 Gold with Third Alternative policy card.
  • With Ethiopia Pack: +3 Production toward wonders, buildings, and districts for each Industrial City-State with 6 Envoys.
  • Minuscule CO₂ into the atmosphere
  • Increasing risk of nuclear accidents as the plant's reactor ages

Strategy

The Nuclear Power Plant, more so than any other energy source in Gathering Storm, has benefits and drawbacks that the player needs to balance for their specific situations. Note that Nuclear Power Plants are vulnerable to enemy Spies, for example via the Sabotage Production espionage mission.

Drawbacks

Nuclear accidents

Main article: Nuclear accident (Civ6)

There are three kinds of nuclear accidents that can occur: Radioactive Steam Venting, Major Radiation Leaks, and Nuclear Meltdowns. As a Nuclear Power Plant's Reactor Age increases, so does the likelihood and potential severity of an accident.

Production upkeep

To avoid the most severe accidents described above, it may be necessary for a city to perform Recommission Nuclear Reactor - a project with a base cost of 400 Production. The true impact of this Production cost depends on the frequency the player deems necessary for recommissioning. On paper, it would seem that the risk-free use of Nuclear Power Plants requires recommissioning every 10 to 20 turns.

Benefits

Efficiency

While Nuclear Power Plants suffer from drawbacks - the effective loss of the city's Production and a potentially significant draw on Uranium - they also enjoy interesting benefits. The most obvious is that the Nuclear Power Plant is four times more efficient than its predecessors, converting 1 Uranium into 16 Power for its city and those nearby. This is counterbalanced by Uranium also being needed for nuclear weapons and Giant Death Robots, thus forcing militaristic players to decide how much of this crucial resource they want tied up in Power production.

Slow global warming progress

Another benefit is that Uranium consumption creates the least amount of CO₂. Depending on the stage of global warming, widespread adoption of Nuclear Power Plants may allow the player to construct Flood Barriers in time to protect their coastal lowlands before such tiles are permanently lost, whereas without Nuclear Power Plants they otherwise cannot. Similarly, slowing global warming may also permit the completion of Dams along all Rivers in the empire as global warming makes floods more frequent. However, once these preparations are made, the benefits related to global warming become less significant. Floods confer only fertility but do no damage. That is another layer of complexity the game offers.

Regional Science bonus

A third benefit lies in its regional Production and Science bonuses. While a city can receive only the highest Production bonus from either its own Power Plant or one nearby, and the Production bonus of the Nuclear Power Plant is easily eclipsed by Coal Power Plants in conjunction with strategically placed Industrial Zones, the Science bonus always applies to all cities within range.

The player needs to balance between this benefit of extra Science output and the drawbacks of Uranium cost and productivity loss due to recommissioning.

Civilopedia entry

The sole purpose of a power plant (or power station, generating plant, or power house) – be it hydro, nuclear, solar, fossil fuel-fired, tidal or other – is to feed the voracious appetite for electricity that civilization has developed over the past 160 years. Whatever the form, the principle is the same: convert one type of energy into another so that humans can enjoy their comforts. The first power plant was designed and built by Baron William Armstrong in 1868 AD (when scientists were still playing around with electricity in labs) in Cragside; water from a lake was used to turn the dynamos, and the resulting electricity powered lights, heating, hot water heaters, an elevator, and other odd devices in his properties nearby. In January 1882 the first public power plant came online in London, and in September the Pearl Street Station began operations in New York City supplying electricity to lower Manhattan. Although the Pearl Street Station burned down in 1890, it was too late – people were hooked on electric lights, and now over 7300 power plants operate in the United States alone.

See also

• Power Plant (Civ6)
  • Coal Power Plant (Civ6)
  • Oil Power Plant (Civ6)
• Nuclear (Power) Plant in other games