Point Beach 1 completes Fall refuel in 26 days, caps 548-day B2B run

[Core Content]

Point Beach 1, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Point Beach 1 completed a routine refueling outage running 7 days longer than the planned 19 days. The outage lasted 26 days at 0% power from Oct 10, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026. The unit was back at full power (100%) as of the NRC report of Nov 10, 2026.

26 days outage · 7 days past schedule · eighth B2B run complete · 598 MW back at full power

Point Beach 1 completed its Fall 2026 refueling outage, reaching full power on Nov 10, 2026 after 26 days offline. The outage began on Oct 10, 2026. The reactor was critical by the NRC's Nov 5, 2026 report and back on the grid by Nov 8, 2026. First power to full power took 5 days.

The published schedule had it at 19 days (Oct 10, 2026 to Oct 29, 2026), so the actual ran 7 days longer than planned.

It came off line after a 12-day end-of-cycle coastdown, with output drifting from 97% to 90%.

The outage ran about 11 days shorter than the unit's 18-cycle average of 36.6 days. It also capped a 548-day breaker-to-breaker run, the unit's eighth qualified B2B run. Going into the refueling, the unit had run for more than 5 years without an unscheduled outage.

Counting the 26 days offline and the climb back to full power, the outage cost roughly 409,000 MWh of generation, worth approximately $16 million at recent wholesale prices.

Across the U.S. fleet of 94 commercial reactors, today's combined capacity factor is 84.2% (12 units currently refueling, 3 units in unscheduled outages), below the 88.0% baseline for this month over the past five years. At the same site, Point Beach 2 is currently offline. Callaway, Peach Bottom 2, Sequoyah 2, and Cooper also completed refueling outages within the past week.

Point Beach 1 is a 598-MW Westinghouse 2-loop PWR operated by NextEra Energy (commercial operation since 1970). At full power, it supplies enough electricity for roughly 478,000 homes. 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 2050 (renewed in 2025). The unit ran at a 93.9% capacity factor in 2025, a solid year of operation.

View Point Beach 1'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.