Point Beach 2 trips offline, unscheduled outage underway

[Core Content]

Point Beach 2, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Point Beach 2 entered an unscheduled outage, ending a streak of more than 12 years without an unscheduled outage. The event marks the first forced outage for the unit in 2026, compared to 0 in all of 2025. Projections estimate the duration will be about 4 days.

TWO RIVERS, WI. Point Beach 2 entered an unscheduled outage and was at 0% power in the NRC's Nov 9, 2026 daily power report. 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. Its most recent outage was a 28-day refueling outage that ended in April 2026. Prior to this trip, the unit had gone more than 12 years without an unscheduled outage.

Based on the unit's history and similar reactor types, projected total duration is about 4 days.

Across the U.S. fleet of 94 commercial reactors, today's combined capacity factor is 83.3% (12 units currently refueling, 2 units in unscheduled outages), below the 88.0% baseline for this month over the past five years. At the same site, Point Beach 1 is at 93% power. Summer and Arkansas Nuclear 2 also experienced unscheduled outages within the past week. While the unit is down, that takes about 482,000 homes' worth of generation off the grid.

Point Beach 2 is a 603-MW Westinghouse 2-loop PWR operated by NextEra Energy (commercial operation since 1972). The utility operates both units at this site and 5 more at 3 other U.S. plants. Ownership history: Nuclear Management Co took over running it from WE Energies in August 2000, and NextEra (FPL) bought it from WE Energies in September 2007. Its operating license runs through 2053 (renewed in 2025).

View Point Beach 2's ratings, history, projections, and current status on NukeWorker. This thread will follow the restart and power ascension. Get a free email alert the moment it comes back online.

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