Vogtle 2 completes Fall refuel in 40 days, caps 529-day B2B run

[Core Content]

Vogtle 2, Waynesboro, Georgia.

Vogtle 2 finished its routine refueling outage 3 days early, completing the work in 40 days instead of the planned 43 days during the fall season. By the NRC report of Oct 26, 2026, the unit was back at full power of 98%. The 40 day duration ranks as the third-longest among the unit's 19 tracked refuels, running 12 days above the average of 28 days for 18 prior refuels.

40 days outage · 3 days ahead of schedule · ninth B2B run complete · 1,152 MW back at full power

Vogtle 2 is back at full power after a 40-day Fall 2026 refueling outage that began Sep 13, 2026, reaching full power on Oct 26, 2026. The reactor was critical by the NRC's Oct 23, 2026 report, in Mode 1 by Oct 24, 2026, and back on the grid by Oct 25, 2026. First power to full power took 3 days.

The published schedule had it at 43 days (Sep 13, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026), so the actual ran 3 days shorter than planned.

It came off line after a 22-day end-of-cycle coastdown, with output drifting from 97% to 76%.

It is the unit's third-longest refueling outage of 19 cycles tracked since 1999. It also capped a 529-day breaker-to-breaker run, the unit's ninth qualified B2B run. Going into the refueling, the unit had run for more than 2 years without an unscheduled outage.

Counting the 40 days offline and the climb back to full power, the outage cost roughly 1.15 million MWh of generation, worth approximately $46 million at recent wholesale prices.

Across the U.S. fleet of 94 commercial reactors, today's combined capacity factor is 82.6% (16 units currently refueling), above the 81.8% baseline for this month over the past five years. At the same site, Vogtle 1, Vogtle 3, and Vogtle 4 are all running at full power. D.C. Cook 1, Byron 2, Callaway, and Cooper also completed refueling outages within the past week.

Vogtle 2 is a 1,152-MW Westinghouse 4-loop PWR operated by Southern Nuclear (commercial operation since 1989). At full power, it supplies enough electricity for roughly 922,000 homes. The utility operates all 4 units at this site and 4 more at 2 other U.S. plants. Its operating license runs through 2049 (renewed in 2009). The unit ran at a 92.0% capacity factor in 2025, a solid year of operation.

View Vogtle 2'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.