US nuclear outages ease to 17,662 MW on Oct 27, 2026, from the 19,936 MW fall peak

Outages are falling as the fall refueling season turns

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) tracks how much nuclear generating capacity is offline each day, for example during refueling. Less offline capacity means more steady, round-the-clock power on the grid.

• Outages were 17,662 megawatts (MW) on Oct 27, down from 18,098 MW the day before.
• They peaked at 19,936 MW on Oct 21.
• The Oct 27 level is about 17.7% of the fleet's 100,057 MW of nuclear capacity.
• Outages climbed from roughly 1.5–3 gigawatts (GW) in late August to about 15 GW in early October. They then jumped to 19.8 GW on Oct 12.
• This fall's peak stayed below the spring high of 22,172 MW on Apr 20.

Vogtle's return explains about half of the drop since the peak

The Vogtle plant's outage stayed at 1,152 MW through Oct 22. It then fell through 1,129, 634, 242 and 23 MW, and reached 0 MW by Oct 27.

Palisades and one Palo Verde unit are still fully offline

• The outage at Palisades equals the plant's full capacity of 815.6 MW. The plant's restart has not yet produced any power.
• Generator 1 at Palo Verde is still fully out at 1,333 MW.

The capacity base and the market effect are minor details

The fleet's total capacity rose to 100,057 MW from 97,621 MW on Oct 1. On the same date, Palisades' rating went from 768.5 to 815.6 MW. Vogtle's rating did not change. More baseload power, meaning output that runs around the clock, is coming back just as US gas prices weaken. The effect on prices at the margin is small.