Mexico’s entire commercial nuclear power programme is concentrated at one location. The Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant on the Gulf of Mexico coast contains the country’s only two operating power reactors and supplies a modest but dependable part of national electricity generation.
This makes Mexico different from both large nuclear states and countries considering their first reactor. It already has decades of operating experience, a trained workforce and an established regulatory system, but nuclear energy has not expanded beyond Laguna Verde. The central issue is therefore not whether Mexico can operate nuclear power. It is whether the country will use its existing experience as the foundation for a larger programme or continue treating Laguna Verde as a valuable but isolated asset.
Two Reactors Carry the Entire Commercial Programme
Laguna Verde is located in Alto Lucero, in the eastern state of Veracruz. Its position on the Gulf coast provides access to the water required for plant cooling and connects the facility to the electricity network serving central and eastern Mexico.
The plant contains two boiling water reactors operated by the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, or CFE. Each unit has an installed electrical capacity of approximately 810 MW, giving the site a combined capacity of 1,620 MW.
Unit 1 entered commercial operation in 1990, followed by Unit 2 in 1995. The reactors originally operated at lower output, but modernization and power-uprate projects increased their generating capacity. As a result, Mexico obtained additional nuclear electricity without constructing another plant.
In 2024, Laguna Verde produced about 4.8% of Mexico’s electricity. Its contribution was larger within the CFE fleet, accounting for slightly more than 8% of the electricity the state utility supplied to the national system. CFE also reported that the plant produced approximately 16% of Mexico’s clean electricity.
These figures show both the importance and the limits of nuclear energy in Mexico. Laguna Verde is a significant individual power station, but it does not define the national electricity mix. Mexico’s system is much larger and remains heavily influenced by natural gas, oil products, hydropower and a growing portfolio of solar and wind generation.
Nuclear power nevertheless offers a quality that variable renewable generation cannot provide by itself: continuous output that is largely independent of weather conditions. This allows Laguna Verde to support system reliability while producing electricity with low operational carbon emissions.
Long-Term Licences Have Replaced the Immediate Closure Question
The future of Laguna Verde became clearer when Mexico granted extended operating licences to both reactors. Unit 1 is licensed to operate until 2050, while Unit 2 is licensed until 2055.
Those extensions potentially give Mexico another quarter-century of nuclear generation from the existing site. They also change the nature of the programme. The main task is no longer preparing for the end of the plant’s original operating period. It is maintaining safety, reliability and workforce competence over a much longer life.
Long-term operation requires continuing investment. Components must be inspected, repaired or replaced as they age. Safety systems must remain aligned with updated standards, while plant procedures must incorporate international operating experience and lessons from events at other nuclear facilities.
Mexico adopted additional safety measures following the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan. These included provisions for coping with extreme external events and improving the monitoring of spent-fuel pools. Such work is particularly important at a coastal facility that must account for storms, flooding, seismic conditions, loss of power and interruptions to cooling.
Licence extensions also create a human-capital challenge. The country must maintain a pipeline of reactor operators, engineers, maintenance specialists, radiation-protection staff and regulators through the 2050s. Knowledge transfer is essential because many employees involved in the plant’s earlier operating years will retire long before the licences expire.
Laguna Verde has its own training infrastructure, including a plant simulator. Mexico can therefore prepare much of its operating workforce domestically instead of relying entirely on training at foreign reactors.
Nuclear Power Provides Firm Output in a Rapidly Growing System
Mexico expects electricity demand to rise as its population, cities and industrial base continue to develop. Manufacturing investment and nearshoring have increased attention on the availability of dependable electricity, particularly in industrial regions with growing loads.
The federal government’s electricity expansion plans call for tens of thousands of megawatts of additional capacity by 2030. The programme includes public and private investment in renewable generation, thermal plants, storage, transmission lines and substations.
Laguna Verde supports this expansion by providing a large block of existing firm generation. Keeping the plant in service avoids the need to replace all 1,620 MW with new capacity and helps reduce the quantity of natural gas or other fossil fuels required for electricity production.
However, current expansion policy does not place new nuclear construction at the center of Mexico’s capacity programme. Solar, wind, storage, hydropower improvements and conventional thermal generation have received greater attention in near-term plans.
This means nuclear energy’s percentage of national generation could decline even if Laguna Verde continues performing well. The plant may produce a stable quantity of electricity while the overall system grows around it.
Such a result would not make nuclear power unimportant. A relatively small share of generation can still provide valuable system stability, clean-energy production and fuel diversity. It would, however, confirm that Mexico sees nuclear power mainly as an established supporting resource rather than the main instrument of electricity expansion.
State Control Defines Mexico’s Nuclear Model
Nuclear energy occupies a special legal position in Mexico. The federal state controls the use of nuclear fuels for energy production, and Laguna Verde is owned and operated by the state electricity company.
CFE therefore carries responsibility for plant operation, maintenance, investment, fuel procurement and the management of waste generated at the site. The Ministry of Energy provides national policy direction, while the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, known as CNSNS, performs the principal regulatory and inspection functions.
This structure limits the possibility of an independent private company developing a commercial nuclear station in the same way that private investors may develop some solar, wind or gas projects. Any major nuclear expansion would require a clear federal decision and a state-led delivery structure.
Fuel supply also connects Mexico’s nuclear programme to international markets. Mexico does not operate a complete domestic commercial fuel cycle capable of mining, converting, enriching and manufacturing all fuel required by Laguna Verde. CFE therefore obtains enriched uranium and related services through external supply arrangements.
Financial documents from 2025 show that CFE continued arranging credit specifically connected to enriched uranium for Laguna Verde. Fuel costs are only one part of plant operation, but secure procurement is strategically important because disruptions must be anticipated well before a reactor requires a new fuel load.
The concentration of the entire programme at one site creates efficiency but also exposure. Mexico can focus its specialist resources, training and regulatory attention on Laguna Verde. At the same time, a prolonged outage affecting both units would remove all commercial nuclear generation from the national system.
Spent Fuel Is a Longer-Term Policy Test
Operating the reactors until 2050 and 2055 will produce additional spent nuclear fuel. Mexico currently manages spent fuel at Laguna Verde through storage facilities at the plant, including pools and dry-storage capacity.
On-site storage is an accepted interim practice, but it does not settle the final-disposal question. Mexico has not implemented a permanent geological repository for commercial spent nuclear fuel. High-level material is therefore expected to remain under controlled storage until the state makes and carries out a long-term disposal decision.
Responsibility is divided according to the type and source of waste. Laguna Verde manages the radioactive waste and spent fuel arising from electricity generation, while the National Institute for Nuclear Research has responsibilities connected to other radioactive materials and research activities. Final disposal remains a responsibility of the Mexican state.
Longer reactor lives increase the time available to develop a national solution, but they also increase the inventory that must eventually be managed. Mexico will need an institutional structure capable of planning disposal, securing long-term funding, selecting and assessing sites, engaging affected communities and maintaining records over many decades.
The waste question is therefore connected to any possible nuclear expansion. A proposal for additional reactors would need to explain not only construction cost and electricity output but also how spent fuel and decommissioning liabilities would be financed and managed.
Expansion Remains Possible but Uncommitted
Mexico has several advantages if it decides to expand nuclear generation. It already operates reactors, maintains a nuclear regulator and research institute, trains specialists and participates in international nuclear-safety agreements. Laguna Verde may also offer some infrastructure and workforce advantages for a future project.
The barriers are primarily economic and political. Large reactors require major capital investment, long construction schedules and stable policy over several presidential administrations. Small modular reactors could reduce the size of each individual investment, but commercial cost and delivery performance still need to be demonstrated.
Mexico must also compare nuclear projects with alternatives that can be built more quickly. Solar and wind resources are substantial, while natural-gas plants generally require less initial capital and have shorter construction periods. Nuclear power offers low-carbon firm generation, but that value must be weighed against financing costs, project risk and long-term waste obligations.
For the foreseeable future, the most concrete nuclear strategy is the continued operation of Laguna Verde. Its extended licences preserve a dependable source of electricity through the middle of the century and maintain Mexico’s status as one of the few Latin American countries with commercial nuclear power.
Whether Mexico develops a larger programme will depend on electricity demand, climate policy, natural-gas security and the performance of emerging reactor designs. Until a funded construction decision is made, Laguna Verde will remain both the beginning and the practical limit of Mexican nuclear power.
