Vogtle 3 wraps Spring refuel in 28 days, 8 days ahead of schedule

[News Wire]

Vogtle 3 finished its refueling outage in 28 days, completing the work 8 days ahead of the 36-day schedule. The unit entered this spring outage following a 324-day streak without an unscheduled outage. This 1,117-MW Westinghouse 2-loop AP1000 unit is operated by Georgia Power.

28 days outage · 8 days ahead of schedule · 1,117 MW back online

Vogtle 3 completed its Spring 2026 refueling outage on May 16, 2026, returning to service after 28 days. The outage began on Apr 19, 2026.

The published schedule had it at 36 days (Apr 19, 2026 to May 25, 2026), so the actual ran 8 days shorter than planned.

The 28-day outage removed roughly 691,000 MWh from the grid, worth approximately $28 million at recent wholesale prices, equivalent to a year's electricity for about 64,000 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, Vogtle 1, Vogtle 2, and Vogtle 4 are all running at full power. Watts Bar 1, Saint Lucie 2, Limerick 1, and Comanche Peak 2 also completed refueling outages within the past week.

Vogtle 3 is a 1,117-MW Westinghouse 2-loop AP1000 operated by Georgia Power (commercial operation since 2023). At full power, it supplies enough electricity for roughly 894,000 homes. The utility operates 5 other U.S. nuclear units. Its operating license runs through 2062. The unit ran at a 97.4% capacity factor in 2025, among the unit's strongest cycles.

View Vogtle 3'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.