McGuire 2 completes Spring refueling outage in 28 days

[News Wire]

McGuire 2 completed its refueling outage in 28 days, which was four days longer than the planned 24-day schedule. Despite the extension, the duration was 7.9 days below the average of 18 prior refueling outages for the unit. This event concludes a 3,301-day streak of unscheduled-outage-free operation for the reactor.

28 days outage · 4 days past schedule · 1,158 MW back online

McGuire 2 completed its Spring 2026 refueling outage on Apr 18, 2026, returning to service after 28 days. The outage began on Mar 22, 2026.

The published schedule had it at 24 days (Mar 21, 2026 to Apr 14, 2026), so the actual ran 4 days longer than planned.

The outage ran about 8 days shorter than the unit's 18-cycle average of 35.9 days. Going into the refueling, the unit had run for more than 9 years without an unscheduled outage. NukeWorker's predictive model scores 93% on duration accuracy for this unit.

The 28-day outage removed roughly 716,000 MWh from the grid, worth approximately $29 million at recent wholesale prices, equivalent to a year's electricity for about 66,000 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, McGuire 1 is running at full power. Brunswick 1, South Texas 1, Quad Cities 2, and Ginna also completed refueling outages within the past week.

McGuire 2 is a 1,158-MW Westinghouse 4-loop PWR operated by Duke Energy Carolinas (commercial operation since 1984). At full power, it supplies enough electricity for roughly 926,000 homes. The utility operates 6 other U.S. nuclear units. Its operating license runs through 2043 (renewed in 2003). The unit ran at a 97.5% capacity factor in 2025, among the unit's strongest cycles.

View McGuire 2'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.