Watts Bar 1 - 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.
24
Excellence
#87 of 94
Bottom Quartile
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Days of continuous operation since the last outage ended. Has forced outage(s) since last refueling.
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Current Run
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Longest recorded period of continuous operation between outages (1999-04-14 to 2000-09-10).
515
Record Run
days
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Breaker-to-Breaker runs — continuous operation exceeding the cycle-adjusted threshold (455 days for this 18-month cycle unit) with no trips to 0% power.
4
B2B Runs
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Lifetime capacity factor: average power level across all recorded days (100% = always at full power).
88.2%
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.
5.3
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.
88.0%
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
24/100
Bottom Quartile · #87/94
5-year window

Watts Bar 1 ranks #87 of 94 active US units on NukeWorker's Operational Excellence Score over the 5-year window. Strongest area: Scrams (5-year) (48th percentile). Weakest: Fuel Utilization (3th percentile).

Reliability
16
Capacity factor + Forced outages + B2B streaks
Efficiency
22
Fuel utilization + Refuel duration
Discipline
33
Startup duration + Scram count
Cohort Rankings apples-to-apples comparison within each peer group
Reactor type: #59 of 61 PWR
Containment: #10 of 10 Ice Condenser
Cycle length: #51 of 54 18-month cycle
Fleet rank above (87 of 94) compares all active US units; cohort ranks compare only against units sharing this property.
Per-dimension breakdown (7 metrics)
Capacity Factor 15th
85.7% (higher better, Reliability)
Forced Outage Days/yr 4th
25.4d (lower better, Reliability)
B2B Avg Streak 30th
505d (higher better, Reliability)
Fuel Utilization 3th
86.7% (higher better, Efficiency)
Refuel Duration 42th
34d (lower better, Efficiency)
Startup Duration 18th
6.8d (lower better, Discipline)
Scrams (5-year) 48th
0.4/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: 17/100 (#87/93)2022: 27/100 (#77/92)2023: 49/100 (#48/92)2024: 40/100 (#65/93)2025: 36/100 (#70/94)2026: 36/100 (#71/94) Stable vs 2025
Compare Watts Bar 1 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
2026-04-18 In Outage 26+ 348d 2026-04-17 +1d
Scram # 57500
2025-01-17 2025-05-05 109 39d - -
Scheduled
2024-11-02 2024-12-09 38 106d 2024-10-12 +21d
Scram # 57214
2024-07-09 2024-07-19 11 43d - -
Unscheduled
2024-05-25 2024-05-27 3 380d - -
Scheduled
2023-04-15 2023-05-11 27 498d 2023-04-14 +1d
Scheduled
2021-10-30 2021-12-03 35 514d 2021-10-29 +1d
Scheduled
2020-05-09 2020-06-03 26 79d 2020-03-15 (Enhanced) +55d (Enhanced)
Scram # 54532
2020-02-20 2020-02-20 1 121d - -
Unscheduled
2019-09-16 2019-10-22 37 5d - -
Unscheduled
2019-09-05 2019-09-11 7 3d - -
Scram # 54252
2019-09-01 2019-09-02 2 306d - -
Scram # 53697
2018-10-28 2018-10-30 3 2d - -
Scheduled
2018-09-15 2018-10-26 42 495d 2018-09-08 +7d
Scram # 52732
2017-05-05 2017-05-08 4 2d - -
Scram # 52732
2017-05-03 2017-05-03 1 3d - -
Scheduled
2017-03-19 2017-04-30 43 359d 2017-03-20 -1d
Scram # 51815
2016-03-23 2016-03-25 3 131d - -
Unscheduled
2015-11-07 2015-11-13 7 17d - -
Scheduled
2015-09-21 2015-10-21 31 204d 2015-09-14 +7d
Scram # 50839
2015-02-22 2015-03-01 8 222d - -
Scram # 50278
2014-07-14 2014-07-15 2 74d - -
Scheduled
2014-03-24 2014-05-01 39 267d 2014-04-07 -14d
Scram # 49154
2013-06-29 2013-06-30 2 244d - -
Scheduled
2012-09-10 2012-10-28 49 12d 2012-09-10 0d
Scram # 48238
2012-08-28 2012-08-29 2 319d - -
Unscheduled
2011-10-08 2011-10-14 7 132d - -
Scram # 46902
2011-05-29 2011-05-29 1 9d - -
Scheduled
2011-04-04 2011-05-20 47 138d 2011-03-20 +15d
Unscheduled
2010-11-15 2010-11-17 3 175d - -
Unscheduled
2010-05-22 2010-05-24 3 214d - -
Scheduled
2009-09-21 2009-10-20 30 362d 2009-09-20 +1d
Unscheduled
2008-09-21 2008-09-24 4 38d - -
Unscheduled
2008-08-07 2008-08-14 8 75d - -
Unscheduled
2008-05-18 2008-05-24 7 55d - -
Scheduled
2008-02-11 2008-03-24 43 438d 2008-02-10 +1d
Scheduled SGR/Major
2006-09-11 2006-11-30 81 38d 2006-09-10 +1d
Unscheduled
2006-08-01 2006-08-04 4 38d - -
Unscheduled
2006-05-31 2006-06-24 25 426d - -
Scheduled
2005-02-22 2005-03-31 38 155d 2005-02-21 +1d
Unscheduled
2004-09-20 2004-09-20 1 247d - -
Unscheduled
2004-01-17 2004-01-17 1 89d - -
Scheduled
2003-09-08 2003-10-20 43 13d 2003-09-08 0d
Unscheduled
2003-08-26 2003-08-26 1 164d - -
Unscheduled
2003-03-10 2003-03-15 6 239d - -
Unscheduled
2002-07-14 2002-07-14 1 67d - -
Unscheduled
2002-05-04 2002-05-08 5 46d - -
Scheduled
2002-02-25 2002-03-19 23 67d 2002-02-25 0d
Unscheduled
2001-12-20 2001-12-20 1 106d - -
Unscheduled
2001-09-05 2001-09-05 1 58d - -
Unscheduled
2001-06-30 2001-07-09 10 267d - -
Scheduled
2000-09-10 2000-10-06 27 515d 2000-09-10 0d
Scheduled
1999-02-27 1999-04-14 47 - 1999-02-27 0d
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