Palo Verde 2 - Status & History

Comprehensive reactor performance metrics, cycle analysis, and historical outage data.

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Composite Operational Excellence Score (0-100) — average percentile rank across 7 dimensions in three sub-scores: Reliability (capacity factor, forced outage days, B2B avg streak), Efficiency (fuel utilization, refuel duration), and Discipline (startup duration, scram count). 5-year window. Higher = more operationally excellent. Click to see the full breakdown.
32
Excellence
#78 of 94 ↓15
Bottom Quartile
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Days of continuous operation since the last outage ended. Clean run (no forced outages since last refueling).
10
Current Run
days ✔
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Longest recorded period of continuous operation between outages (2011-05-05 to 2012-10-06).
520
Record Run
days
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Breaker-to-Breaker runs — continuous operation exceeding the cycle-adjusted threshold (446 days for this 18-month cycle unit) with no trips to 0% power.
5
B2B Runs
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Lifetime capacity factor: average power level across all recorded days (100% = always at full power).
88.9%
Capacity Factor
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Total number of scheduled refueling outages detected in the historical data.
19
Outages
since 1999
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Average time from first power generation (>0%) to sustained full power (≥95% for 2+ days) across the last 3 scheduled outages. Click to compare against the fleet on the Operator Efficiency Leaderboard.
4.3
Avg Startup
days (last 3)
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Average fuel utilization — percent of the designed fuel cycle that this unit consumes before refueling, derived from the historical burn-down trajectory. Higher = more efficient operator (refuels with less margin remaining; closer to coastdown). Computed as 100% minus the unit's average refuel-point fuel %, using the last 3 years where available, otherwise lifetime average. Click to compare against the fleet on the Operator Efficiency Leaderboard.
96.6%
Fuel Utilization
3yr avg
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NukeWorker's Operational Excellence Score is a composite 0–100 ranking of every active US nuclear unit across 7 publicly observable performance metrics, grouped into three sub-scores:
Reliability — capacity factor, forced outage days, B2B avg streak
Efficiency — fuel utilization, refuel duration
Discipline — startup duration, scram count
Each unit's metric is converted to a percentile across the active fleet. Sub-score = average of its components; composite = average of the three sub-scores. Use the time-window toggle below to switch between 3yr / 5yr / lifetime.
Time window — change how far back we look
NukeWorker's
Operational
Excellence Score
32/100
Bottom Quartile · #78/94
5-year window

Palo Verde 2 ranks #78 of 94 active US units on NukeWorker's Operational Excellence Score over the 5-year window. Strongest area: Fuel Utilization (46th percentile). Weakest: B2B Avg Streak (17th percentile).

Reliability
24
Capacity factor + Forced outages + B2B streaks
Efficiency
36
Fuel utilization + Refuel duration
Discipline
36
Startup duration + Scram count
Cohort Rankings apples-to-apples comparison within each peer group
Reactor type: #54 of 61 PWR
Containment: #44 of 48 Dry Ambient (PWR)
Cycle length: #45 of 54 18-month cycle
Fleet rank above (78 of 94) compares all active US units; cohort ranks compare only against units sharing this property.
Per-dimension breakdown (7 metrics)
Capacity Factor 19th
86.7% (higher better, Reliability)
Forced Outage Days/yr 36th
5.2d (lower better, Reliability)
B2B Avg Streak 17th
499d (higher better, Reliability)
Fuel Utilization 46th
97.9% (higher better, Efficiency)
Refuel Duration 26th
37d (lower better, Efficiency)
Startup Duration 43th
4.8d (lower better, Discipline)
Scrams (5-year) 30th
0.6/yr (lower better, Discipline)

Each dimension's percentile is computed across the active US fleet (94 units with sufficient history). Sub-score = average of its component percentiles. Composite = average of the three sub-scores. 5-year window. View full leaderboard →

Methodology

NukeWorker's Operational Excellence Score is a composite ranking that combines 7 publicly observable performance metrics into a single 0-100 number per US nuclear unit.

How it's computed: Each unit's raw value is converted to a percentile (0-100) within the 94 active US units that have at least 2 completed refueling cycles. The 7 percentiles are averaged into 3 sub-scores (Reliability, Efficiency, Discipline), and those are averaged into the final composite.

Active window — 5-year:

  • Reliability — Capacity factor (5yr), forced outage days/yr (5yr), B2B avg streak (lifetime)
  • Efficiency — in-cycle fuel utilization (3yr), median refuel duration (5yr)
  • Discipline — robust mean startup duration, scrams/yr (5yr, annualised)

Cohort rankings: alongside the fleet rank, each unit gets ranked within its reactor type (PWR/BWR), containment design (Ice Condenser, Mark I, etc.), and cycle length (12/18/24-month). Useful for apples-to-apples comparisons.

What's excluded: subjective community ratings, confidential INPO ratings, financial metrics. We only use publicly available NRC + cycle data.

Why three windows? 5yr (default) is the industry standard. 3yr captures recent operational changes and post-pandemic recovery. Lifetime gives newer units a fair comparison and reveals long-term consistency.

Edge cases: units with fewer than 2 cycles (e.g., Vogtle 4) show "Provisional". Decommissioned units excluded.

Refresh cadence: recomputed daily. Each window cached separately.

A data-derived proxy for operational performance; not affiliated with INPO. INPO ratings are confidential and qualitative — ours is public and quantitative.

5-yr trend: 2021: 30/100 (#74/93)2022: 27/100 (#78/92)2023: 26/100 (#82/92)2024: 28/100 (#80/93)2025: 38/100 (#67/94)2026: 27/100 (#82/94) ↓ -11.3 pts vs 2025
Compare Palo Verde 2 head-to-head with up to 3 other units. Compare now
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Duration of each outage in days, shown chronologically. Green bars are scheduled refueling outages, red bars are forced/unscheduled. The orange dashed line marks the average duration. Extended outages (>180 days) and D&D periods are excluded.

Outage Duration Trend

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Days between consecutive scheduled refueling outage starts, showing operating cycle regularity. The purple dashed line marks the average cycle length. Most U.S. reactors operate on 18-month (547 day) or 24-month (730 day) cycles.

Cycle Length History

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Time in days from first power generation (>0%) to sustained full power (≥95% for 2+ consecutive days) after each scheduled refueling outage. The dashed line marks the average. Includes startup testing holds and power dips.

Startup Duration Trend

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Monthly capacity factor with outage events overlaid as red bands. Green bars show average power level per month. Toggle to Daily view for raw daily data.

Power History

Scheduled
2026-03-20 2026-05-04 46 494d 2026-03-28 -8d
Scheduled
2024-10-05 2024-11-11 38 490d 2024-10-05 0d
Scram # 56551
2023-06-03 2023-06-03 1 6d - -
Unscheduled
2023-05-23 2023-05-28 6 12d - -
Scheduled
2023-04-08 2023-05-11 34 426d 2023-04-08 0d
Unscheduled
2022-01-25 2022-02-06 13 76d - -
Scheduled
2021-10-09 2021-11-10 33 141d 2021-10-02 +7d
Scram # 55265
2021-05-20 2021-05-21 2 81d - -
Scram # 55114
2021-02-27 2021-02-28 2 299d - -
Scheduled
2020-04-04 2020-05-04 31 28d 2020-04-04 0d
Scram # 54560
2020-03-04 2020-03-07 4 198d - -
Scram # 54224
2019-08-17 2019-08-19 3 258d - -
Scheduled
2018-10-06 2018-12-02 58 134d 2018-10-06 0d
Scram # 53424
2018-05-24 2018-05-25 2 381d - -
Scheduled
2017-04-08 2017-05-08 31 511d 2017-04-08 0d
Scheduled
2015-10-10 2015-11-14 36 332d 2015-10-10 0d
Unscheduled
2014-11-07 2014-11-12 6 188d - -
Scheduled
2014-04-05 2014-05-03 29 113d 2014-03-29 +7d
Scram # 49600
2013-12-03 2013-12-13 11 391d - -
Scheduled
2012-10-06 2012-11-07 33 520d 2012-10-06 0d
Scheduled
2011-04-02 2011-05-05 34 487d 2011-04-02 0d
Scheduled
2009-10-03 2009-12-01 60 293d 2009-10-03 0d
Unscheduled
2008-11-22 2008-12-14 23 171d - -
Unscheduled
2008-06-02 2008-06-04 3 3d - -
Scheduled
2008-03-29 2008-05-30 63 169d 2008-03-29 0d
Unscheduled
2007-10-07 2007-10-12 6 224d - -
Unscheduled
2007-02-20 2007-02-25 6 99d - -
Scheduled
2006-09-30 2006-11-13 45 65d 2006-09-29 +1d
Unscheduled
2006-07-27 2006-07-27 1 106d - -
Unscheduled
2006-04-11 2006-04-12 2 173d - -
Unscheduled
2005-10-12 2005-10-20 9 48d - -
Unscheduled
2005-08-23 2005-08-25 3 96d - -
Scheduled
2005-04-02 2005-05-19 48 260d 2005-04-01 +1d
Unscheduled
2004-07-15 2004-07-16 2 27d - -
Unscheduled
2004-06-15 2004-06-18 4 99d - -
Unscheduled
2004-02-20 2004-03-08 18 70d - -
Unscheduled
2003-10-20 2003-12-12 54 2d - -
Scheduled
2003-09-27 2003-10-18 22 58d 2003-10-20 -23d
Unscheduled
2003-07-30 2003-07-31 2 470d - -
Scheduled
2002-03-16 2002-04-16 32 128d 2002-03-16 0d
Unscheduled
2001-10-11 2001-11-08 29 89d - -
Unscheduled
2001-07-14 2001-07-14 1 237d - -
Unscheduled
2000-11-19 2000-11-19 1 14d - -
Scheduled
2000-10-04 2000-11-05 33 37d 2000-10-04 0d
Unscheduled
2000-08-27 2000-08-28 2 228d - -
Unscheduled
2000-01-06 2000-01-12 7 201d - -
Unscheduled
1999-06-19 1999-06-19 1 50d - -
Scheduled
1999-03-27 1999-04-30 35 - 1999-03-27 0d
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