Waterford 3 begins Fall 2026 refueling outage

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Waterford 3, Killona, Louisiana.

Waterford 3 began its routine refueling outage on Oct 17, 2026, right on its scheduled start date with a planned duration of 25 days. The unit entered this fall outage following a streak of about 23 months without an unscheduled outage, having run about 89% of its typical 561-day operating cycle. Its 18 prior refuels averaged 49.9 days.

KILLONA, LA. Waterford 3 came offline on Oct 17, 2026 for refueling. The unit started on the published date (Oct 17, 2026) with a planned 25-day outage running through Nov 11, 2026.

Going into the refueling, the unit had run for about 23 months without an unscheduled outage. NukeWorker's start-date projection scores 98% accuracy for this unit.

Across the U.S. fleet of 94 commercial reactors, today's combined capacity factor is 80.8% (18 units currently refueling), below the 81.8% baseline for this month over the past five years. Comanche Peak 1, Farley 2, Millstone 3, and Peach Bottom 2 also began refueling outages within the past week. With the unit offline for refueling, that takes about 932,000 homes' worth of generation off the grid.

Waterford 3 is a 1,165-MW Combustion Engineering PWR operated by Entergy (commercial operation since 1985). The utility operates 4 other U.S. nuclear units at 3 other plants. Its operating license runs through 2044 (renewed in 2018). The unit ran at an 81.7% capacity factor in 2025, a steady year.

Heading to Killona, LA for outage work? RSCS / Allied Power holds the radiation protection staffing contract here. RSCS / Allied Power's Fall 2026 outage list includes this outage, with RP tech and decon positions. Current per-diem averages $113/night lodging plus $68/day meals (total $181/day), and Unemployment Benefits are $275 weekly. Louisiana taxes wages at a flat 3.0%. See open nuclear jobs in Louisiana on NukeWorker.

View Waterford 3's ratings, history, projections, and current status on NukeWorker.

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

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Update: the NRC event notification shows this refueling outage began with a reactor trip.

Waterford 3 went offline with an automatic reactor trip on Oct 16, 2026 and never came back up, going straight into the refueling. The NRC logged it as event 58501.

AUTOMATIC REACTOR TRIP The following information was provided by the licensee via phone and email: "On October 16, 2026, at 2245 CDT, Waterford 3 Steam Electric Station Unit 3 was operating at 75 percent power. While reducing power in preparation for a refueling outage, an automatic reactor trip was initiated due to an automatic turbine trip. Fast dead bus transfer of the '2B' bus failed resulting in emergency diesel generator 'B' (EDG B) starting and loading on to the '3B' bus. "An emergency feedwater (EFW) actuation signal (EFAS) was received, and EDG B automatically started. The unit is currently stable in mode 3. All control rods fully inserted as expected. Decay heat removal is through the main condenser. [...]

View Waterford 3's ratings, history, projections, and current status on NukeWorker.

Source: NRC event notification.