Browns Ferry 1 completes Fall refueling outage in 28 days

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Browns Ferry 1, Athens, Alabama.

Tennessee Valley Authority completed a scheduled refueling outage at Browns Ferry 1 one day ahead of its twenty-nine-day plan. The fall refueling run lasted twenty-eight days and ended after a one hundred forty-two-day unscheduled-outage-free streak.

The one thousand two-hundred fifty-six-megawatt General Electric boiling water reactor achieved a ninety-seven-eight percent capacity factor during the prior cycle. Operator Tennessee Valley Authority manages six other United States nuclear units. Across the broader fleet, ninety-four units operated at an eighty-one-three percent capacity factor with seventeen units offline for refueling or unscheduled outages.

28 days outage · 1 day ahead of schedule · 1,256 MW back online

Browns Ferry 1 completed its Fall 2026 refueling outage on Oct 9, 2026, returning to service after 28 days. The outage began on Sep 12, 2026.

The published schedule had it at 29 days (Sep 11, 2026 to Oct 10, 2026), so the actual ran 1 day shorter than planned.

NukeWorker's duration projection scores 97% accuracy for this unit.

The 28-day outage removed roughly 777,000 MWh from the grid, worth approximately $31 million at recent wholesale prices, equivalent to a year's electricity for about 72,000 homes.

Across the U.S. fleet of 94 commercial reactors, today's combined capacity factor is 81.3% (15 units currently refueling, 2 units in unscheduled outages), below the 81.8% baseline for this month over the past five years. At the same site, Browns Ferry 2 and Browns Ferry 3 are both running at full power. Millstone 3, Peach Bottom 2, North Anna 2, and Vogtle 2 also completed refueling outages within the past week.

Browns Ferry 1 is a 1,256-MW General Electric BWR/4 operated by Tennessee Valley Authority (commercial operation since 1974). At full power, it supplies enough electricity for roughly 1 million homes. The utility operates 6 other U.S. nuclear units. Its operating license runs through 2053 (renewed in 2025). The unit ran at a 97.8% capacity factor in 2025, among the unit's strongest cycles.

View Browns Ferry 1'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.