US nuclear power plant outages averaged 2.0 gigawatts between January 1 and January 21, 2026, a level 20 percent below the same period in 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration's Status of US Nuclear Outages dashboard. Outages ran below the previous five-year range covering 2021 through 2025 on 7 of those 21 days.

The low point came on January 6, when total outages across the US fleet fell to 1.1 gigawatts. That reading marked the lowest figure since September 2, 2025, and sat 1.0 gigawatt under the total recorded on January 6, 2025.

A single facility accounted for most of what remained. The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan represented nearly three-quarters of total US nuclear outages on January 6. The plant has operated at zero percent output since September 9, 2025, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission changed its status from decommissioning to restarting, and EIA counts that idle capacity as an outage in the dashboard. The Department of Energy approved a loan supporting the restart in March 2025.

The figures illustrate how the US nuclear fleet serves base load electricity demand, which runs at a relatively steady level through the day and across seasons. Reactors take planned outages for refueling and maintenance, and those planned periods cluster seasonally in spring and fall when electricity demand softens. Unplanned outages cover weather disruptions and early retirements. January therefore sits in a stretch of the calendar when operators keep the maximum share of capacity available to the grid.

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