Watts Bar 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.
39
Excellence
#67 of 94 ↑5
Mid Quartile
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Days of continuous operation since the last outage ended. Clean run (no forced outages since last refueling).
302
Current Run
days ✔
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Longest recorded period of continuous operation between outages (2024-03-06 to 2025-04-12).
402
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.
0
B2B Runs
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Lifetime capacity factor: average power level across all recorded days (100% = always at full power).
83.7%
Capacity Factor
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Total number of scheduled refueling outages detected in the historical data.
6
Outages
since 2016
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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.
3.3
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.
100.0%
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
39/100
Mid Quartile · #67/94
5-year window

Watts Bar 2 ranks #67 of 94 active US units on NukeWorker's Operational Excellence Score over the 5-year window. Strongest area: Fuel Utilization (70th percentile). Weakest: Scrams (5-year) (7th percentile).

Reliability
26
Capacity factor + Forced outages + B2B streaks
Efficiency
65
Fuel utilization + Refuel duration
Discipline
25
Startup duration + Scram count
Cohort Rankings apples-to-apples comparison within each peer group
Reactor type: #46 of 61 PWR
Containment: #5 of 10 Ice Condenser
Cycle length: #39 of 54 18-month cycle
Fleet rank above (67 of 94) compares all active US units; cohort ranks compare only against units sharing this property.
Per-dimension breakdown (7 metrics)
Capacity Factor 28th
88.4% (higher better, Reliability)
Forced Outage Days/yr 25th
7.0d (lower better, Reliability)
Fuel Utilization 70th
98.4% (higher better, Efficiency)
Refuel Duration 60th
30d (lower better, Efficiency)
Startup Duration 43th
4.8d (lower better, Discipline)
Scrams (5-year) 7th
1.0/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 (#85/93)2022: 20/100 (#84/92)2023: 33/100 (#71/92)2024: 31/100 (#77/93)2025: 27/100 (#82/94)2026: 31/100 (#77/94) ↑ +3.6 pts vs 2025
Compare Watts Bar 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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Estimated fuel remaining in the current cycle, expressed as a percentage of the unit's typical cycle. Starts at 100% when the unit returns to power post-refuel and drops as full-power-days are burned. Days at reduced power burn fuel proportionally — so a unit with significant downtime (high burn deficit) drops slower and ends up with MORE fuel left than its calendar position would suggest. Coastdown threshold around 15%. Toggle to overlay past cycles on a normalized "days into cycle" axis to see how aggressively this unit historically burns down before refuel.

Fuel Burn Down Cycle since May 13, 2025

26.7% remaining 365 / 490 days 5.7 FPD margin
Avg refuel: 5.0% Avg refuel (3yr): 0.0% Deepest burn: 0.0% (2019-05 → 2020-10) Most margin: 17.4% (2020-11 → 2022-03)
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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

Scram # 57810
2025-07-14 2025-07-16 3 63d - -
Scheduled
2025-04-12 2025-05-12 31 402d 2025-04-11 +1d
Scram # 57006
2024-03-05 2024-03-06 2 35d - -
Scram # 56935
2024-01-28 2024-01-30 3 62d - -
Scheduled
2023-11-04 2023-11-27 24 91d 2023-11-03 +1d
Scram # 56660
2023-08-05 2023-08-05 1 37d - -
Scram # 56593
2023-06-28 2023-06-29 2 363d - -
Scheduled SGR/Major
2022-03-02 2022-06-30 121 152d 2022-02-28 +2d
Unscheduled
2021-09-11 2021-10-01 21 177d - -
Scram # 55143
2021-03-18 2021-03-18 1 119d - -
Scheduled
2020-10-24 2020-11-19 27 146d 2020-10-24 0d
Unscheduled
2020-05-16 2020-05-31 16 360d - -
Scram # 54077
2019-05-22 2019-05-22 1 7d - -
Scheduled
2019-04-13 2019-05-15 33 66d 2019-04-13 0d
Unscheduled
2019-02-03 2019-02-06 4 160d - -
Scram # 53557
2018-08-23 2018-08-27 5 56d - -
Scram # 53467
2018-06-23 2018-06-28 6 71d - -
Scram # 53327
2018-04-13 2018-04-13 1 120d - -
Scram # 53112
2017-12-12 2017-12-14 3 7d - -
Scheduled
2017-10-28 2017-12-05 39 90d 2017-10-16 +12d
Scram # 52625
2017-03-21 2017-07-30 132 143d - -
Unscheduled
2016-10-23 2016-10-29 7 - - -
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