FitzPatrick completes Fall refuel in 20 days, caps 719-day B2B run

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FitzPatrick, Lycoming, New York.

The FitzPatrick nuclear plant completed a routine 20-day refueling outage on October 3, running three days longer than its planned 17-day schedule. The 853-megawatt General Electric boiling water reactor entered the maintenance period following a 720-day unscheduled-outage-free streak.

Despite exceeding its initial schedule, the duration remained well below the unit historical average of 28.3 days across 13 prior refuels. Operator Constellation Nuclear manages 20 other U.S. units within a wider fleet operating at an 85.2 percent capacity factor. During the fall project, four other reactors across the United States were also in refueling outages.

20 days outage · 3 days past schedule · fifth B2B run complete · 853 MW back online

FitzPatrick completed its Fall 2026 refueling outage on Oct 3, 2026, returning to service after 20 days. The outage began on Sep 14, 2026.

The published schedule had it at 17 days (Sep 14, 2026 to Oct 1, 2026), so the actual ran 3 days longer than planned.

It is the unit's second-shortest refueling outage of 14 cycles tracked since 2000. It also capped a 719-day breaker-to-breaker run, the unit's fifth qualified B2B run. Going into the refueling, the unit had run for about 24 months without an unscheduled outage. NukeWorker's duration projection scores 94% accuracy for this unit.

The 20-day outage removed roughly 377,000 MWh from the grid, worth approximately $15 million at recent wholesale prices, equivalent to a year's electricity for about 35,000 homes.

Across the U.S. fleet of 94 commercial reactors, today's combined capacity factor is 85.2% (12 units currently refueling, 1 unit in an unscheduled outage), above the 81.8% baseline for this month over the past five years. McGuire 1, Callaway, Byron 2, and Cooper also completed refueling outages within the past week.

FitzPatrick is an 853-MW General Electric BWR/4 operated by Constellation Nuclear (commercial operation since 1975). At full power, it supplies enough electricity for roughly 682,000 homes. The utility operates 20 other U.S. nuclear units. Its operating license runs through 2034 (renewed in 2008). The unit ran at a 99.7% capacity factor in 2025, among the unit's strongest cycles.

View FitzPatrick's ratings, history, projections, and current status on NukeWorker.

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