US nuclear outages reach 19,936 MW on Oct 21 as fall refuelling peaks
About 19,936 megawatts (MW) of US nuclear capacity was offline on Oct 21, roughly 20% of the fleet, as fall refuelling peaks. That is close to the spring peak and likely means more gas burn while it lasts.
A data update from FactIQ, written from Energy Information Administration figures. What is FactIQ?
Key figures
- US nuclear capacity offline, Oct 21
- 19,936 MWup from about 12,000 MW on Oct 1; spring peak about 22,200 MW on Apr 202026-09-052026-10-22U.S. Daily Nuclear Capacity Outage
- US nuclear power capacity
- 100,057 MWcapacity offline is roughly 20% of the fleet2026-09-052026-10-22U.S. Nuclear Power Capacity
- Peach Bottom capacity offline, from Oct 12
- 1,346.7 MWup from about 94 MW2026-09-052026-10-22Daily Nuclear Generating Capacity Outage at Peach Bottom
- Comanche Peak capacity offline, from Oct 19
- 1,235 MWup from 123.5 MW2026-09-052026-10-22Daily Nuclear Generating Capacity Outage at Comanche Peak
Outages have climbed fast since late September and are close to the spring peak
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes daily figures on nuclear capacity outage. This is the generating capacity, in megawatts (MW), of reactors that are offline. It shows how much nuclear power the grid has lost, often during planned refuelling.- Oct 21: 19,936 MW out, roughly 20% of the 100,057 MW fleet.
- Oct 1: about 12,000 MW.
- Late September: about 7,500–7,700 MW.
- Spring peak: about 22,200 MW on Apr 20.
Nothing in the data is unusual for late October.
Single units at several large plants are behind the rise
- Comanche Peak: outage rose from 123.5 MW to 1,235 MW on Oct 19. One unit is now offline.
- Peach Bottom: outage rose from about 94 MW to 1,346.7 MW on Oct 12. One unit is out.
- Palo Verde: 1,333 MW out since Oct 3.
- Vogtle: steady at 1,152 MW out.
- Palisades: its full 815.6 MW is shown as out.
One plant returned, and fleet capacity was rated higher from Oct 1
Browns Ferry moved the other way. Its outage fell from 1,254.8 MW in early October to zero from Oct 15.Total US nuclear power capacity rose from 97,620.5 MW to 100,056.7 MW on Oct 1. Plant capacities rose in proportion. For example, Palisades went from 768.5 to 815.6 MW. This looks like a switch to seasonal ratings, not new reactors.
Source: Energy Information Administration. See all EIA data in FactIQ.
About FactIQ and these updates
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- How an update is made. When Energy Information Administration publishes new figures, FactIQ loads them and an AI model writes a short summary of what changed. Before it is published, code checks that every number in the summary matches FactIQ's record of the release, and a second review checks that nothing is overstated. Values that look like errors in the source data are left out.
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