Catawba 1 completes Spring refueling outage in 26 days

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Catawba 1 completed its spring refueling outage in 26 days, which was five days longer than the planned 21 days. Despite the schedule variance, the duration was 7.8 days below the average of the unit's 18 prior refuels. This outage followed a 442-day unscheduled-outage-free streak for the 1,160-MW Westinghouse 4-loop PWR.

26 days outage · 5 days past schedule · 1,160 MW back online

After 26 days offline for its Spring 2026 refueling outage, Catawba 1 returned to the grid on May 13, 2026. The outage began on Apr 18, 2026.

The published schedule had it at 21 days (Apr 18, 2026 to May 9, 2026), so the actual ran 5 days longer than planned.

The outage ran about 8 days shorter than the unit's 18-cycle average of 33.8 days. Going into the refueling, the unit had run for about 15 months without an unscheduled outage. NukeWorker's predictive model scores 90% on duration accuracy for this unit.

The 26-day outage removed roughly 666,000 MWh from the grid, worth approximately $27 million at recent wholesale prices, equivalent to a year's electricity for about 62,000 homes.

Across the U.S. fleet of 94 commercial reactors, today's combined capacity factor is 91.3% (5 currently in refueling), above the 87.0% baseline for this month over the past five years. At the same site, Catawba 2 is running at full power. Millstone 2, Watts Bar 1, Turkey Point 3, and Fermi 2 also completed refueling outages within the past week.

Catawba 1 is a 1,160-MW Westinghouse 4-loop PWR operated by Duke Energy Carolinas (commercial operation since 1985). At full power, it supplies enough electricity for roughly 928,000 homes. The utility operates 6 other U.S. nuclear units. Its operating license runs through 2043 (renewed in 2003). The unit ran at a 99.2% capacity factor in 2025, among the unit's strongest cycles.

View Catawba 1's ratings, history, predictions, and current status on NukeWorker.

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Sources: NRC Daily Reactor Power Status reports, utility-published outage schedules, and NukeWorker's predictive model.