Davis-Besse trips offline, unscheduled outage underway

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Davis-Besse, Oak Harbor, Ohio.

Davis-Besse began an unscheduled forced short outage on 2026-09-08. This event ended the unit's unscheduled-outage-free streak at 386 days.

This is the first forced outage for the 894-MW Babcock and Wilcox PWR in 2026, matching the total count for all of 2025. Energy Harbor Nuclear Generation operates this unit along with three other U.S. nuclear units. Across the industry, 94 units are currently operating at a 95.4 percent capacity factor. Two units are currently in refueling outages, while Davis-Besse and Dresden 2 are the only two units in unscheduled outages at this time.

OAK HARBOR, OH. An unscheduled outage at Davis-Besse began on Sep 8, 2026. The NRC has not yet issued an event notification for this trip; a follow-up reply will be posted here if one is filed.

This is the first unscheduled outage of 2026 for the unit, which had 1 unscheduled outage in all of 2025. Its most recent outage was a 30-day refueling outage that ended in March 2026. Prior to this trip, the unit had gone about 13 months without an unscheduled outage.

Across the U.S. fleet of 94 commercial reactors, today's combined capacity factor is 95.4% (2 units currently refueling, 2 units in unscheduled outages), above the 92.8% baseline for this month over the past five years. Dresden 2 also had an unscheduled outage within the past week. While the unit is down, that takes about 715,000 homes' worth of generation off the grid.

Davis-Besse is an 894-MW Babcock & Wilcox PWR operated by Energy Harbor Nuclear Generation (commercial operation since 1978). The utility operates 3 other U.S. nuclear units. Its operating license runs through 2037 (renewed in 2015).

View Davis-Besse's ratings, history, projections, and current status on NukeWorker. This thread will be updated when the unit returns to service.

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

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Energy Harbor Nuclear Generation returned the Davis-Besse nuclear plant to service following an 11-day forced extended outage. The 894-MW Babcock and Wilcox pressurized water reactor resumed operations on September 18, 2026, after going offline on September 8.

This event marks the first forced outage for the unit in 2026, matching its total of one forced outage for all of 2025. Across the United States, the nuclear fleet operated at a 92.8 percent capacity factor across 94 units, with six units in refueling and Dresden 2 as the only other unit in an outage. The plant operator manages three other nuclear units.

Davis-Besse returned to service on Sep 18, 2026 after a 11-day unscheduled outage that began on Sep 8, 2026. A multi-day outage in this range typically points to a single equipment fix rather than a major component issue.

The 11-day outage removed roughly 217,000 MWh from the grid, worth approximately $9 million at recent wholesale prices, equivalent to a year's electricity for about 20,000 homes.

View Davis-Besse's ratings, history, projections, and current status on NukeWorker.

Want the full picture? Subscribe to the NukeWorker outage schedule for every current and upcoming U.S. nuclear outage.

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