Between January 1 and January 21, 2026, US nuclear plant outages averaged 2.0 gigawatts, 20 percent lower than the same three week period in 2025 and below the prior five year range on 7 of the 21 days, according to the US Energy Information Administration's Status of US Nuclear Outages dashboard. Outages fell to as low as 1.1 gigawatts on January 6, 2026, the lowest level recorded since September 2025 and a full gigawatt below outages recorded on the same date a year earlier.

A significant share of the outage total during the period came from the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, which remains in the process of restarting after previously operating as a decommissioning site. The Department of Energy approved a loan in 2025 to support the Palisades restart, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has since changed the plant's regulatory status from decommissioning to restarting, clearing the way for the unit to return to service.

EIA tracks nuclear outages daily across the operating fleet, giving grid operators and utilities a near real time view of available nuclear capacity heading into periods of high electricity demand. Lower planned and unplanned outage totals generally translate into more nuclear capacity available to the grid, a factor that carries more weight as data centers and other large electricity users add new load across several regions of the country.

Low outage levels early in the year also reflect a broader trend of rising capacity factors across the US nuclear fleet, as utilities work to extend the interval between scheduled refueling outages and reduce unplanned downtime.

Source: US Energy Information Administration - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67047