The U.S. Energy Information Administration's nuclear data snapshot shows the scale and reach of the country's reactor fleet. As of the agency's most recent full-year compilation, 93 operable nuclear reactors were running across 28 states, generating 778,188 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, or 18.9 percent of total U.S. electricity generation for the year.
The fleet's average annual capacity factor reached 92.7 percent, meaning reactors produced power at nearly full rated output almost around the clock. That reliability stands out against a fleet that represents only 8.3 percent of total U.S. generating capacity yet supplies close to a fifth of the nation's electricity, underscoring how much output each reactor delivers relative to its size.
Arizona's Palo Verde Generating Station, with three reactors, remains the largest nuclear plant in the country at 3,937 megawatts of combined capacity. On the fuel side, EIA figures show domestic uranium concentrate production totaled 21,000 pounds, with an average purchase price of $33.91 per pound, figures that illustrate how much of the fuel supply for U.S. reactors still originates outside domestic mining operations.
EIA also tracks the cost advantage nuclear fuel holds over other baseload sources: nuclear fuel costs averaged 0.61 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to 2.46 cents for fossil steam generation, a gap that has helped keep operating costs for existing plants competitive even as new construction costs remain high.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration — https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/data-and-statistics.php