Columbia Generating Station - Status & History

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

Reactor Status Timeline

Online NRC data, Mon to Fri ? Actual daily reactor status from NRC reports (Mon to Fri), the current state, and what is coming: the utility's published Scheduled outage plus, for subscribers, NukeWorker's model Projection. Colored by status. How far ahead you can see depends on your plan.
Aug2025SepOctNovDecJan2026FebMarAprMayJunJulAugOnline: Jul 13, 2025 to Aug 16, 2025Reduced Power: Aug 17, 2025Online: Aug 18, 2025 to Dec 12, 2025Reduced Power: Dec 13, 2025Online: Dec 14, 2025 to Feb 12, 2026Scram: Feb 13, 2026 to Feb 16, 2026Reduced Power: Feb 17, 2026 to Feb 18, 2026Online: Feb 19, 2026 to Feb 20, 2026Power Ascension: Feb 21, 2026Online: Feb 22, 2026 to May 4, 2026Reduced Power: May 5, 2026 to May 7, 2026Online: May 8, 2026 to Jun 20, 2026Reduced Power: Jun 21, 2026Online: Jun 22, 2026 to Jul 13, 2026Scram (reactor trip): Feb 12, 2026Today
OnlineReduced PowerPower AscensionScramScram (reactor trip)
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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.
41
Excellence
#58 of 93 ↓14
Mid Quartile
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Days of continuous operation since the last outage ended. Clean run (no forced outages since last refueling).
147
Current Run
days ✔
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Longest recorded period of continuous operation between outages (2019-06-17 to 2021-05-09).
692
Record Run
days
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Breaker-to-Breaker runs — continuous operation exceeding the cycle-adjusted threshold (592 days for this 24-month cycle unit) with no trips to 0% power.
3
B2B Runs
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Lifetime capacity factor: average power level across all recorded days (100% = always at full power).
86.3%
Capacity Factor
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Net electricity actually generated over the most recent 12 months reported by the U.S. EIA (Form EIA-923). Authoritative actuals, not an estimate.
8.27 TWh
Net Generation
EIA-923 · 12 mo to 2026-04
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Total number of scheduled refueling outages detected in the historical data.
14
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.
8.3
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.
94.5%
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
41/100
Mid Quartile · #58/93
5-year window

Columbia Generating Station ranks #58 of 93 active US units on NukeWorker's Operational Excellence Score over the 5-year window. Strongest area: Scrams (5-year) (70th percentile). Weakest: Refuel Duration (3th percentile).

Reliability
51
Capacity factor + Forced outages + B2B streaks
Efficiency
3
Fuel utilization + Refuel duration
Discipline
70
Startup duration + Scram count
Cohort Rankings apples-to-apples comparison within each peer group
Reactor type: #21 of 31 BWR
Containment: #6 of 8 Mark II (BWR)
Cycle length: #29 of 40 24-month cycle
Fleet rank above (58 of 93) compares all active US units; cohort ranks compare only against units sharing this property.
Per-dimension breakdown (7 metrics)
Capacity Factor 35th
90.0% (higher better, Reliability)
Forced Outage Days/yr 49th
3.4d (lower better, Reliability)
B2B Avg Streak 69th
680d (higher better, Reliability)
Refuel Duration 3th
62d (lower better, Efficiency)
Scrams (5-year) 70th
0.2/yr (lower better, Discipline)

Each dimension's percentile is computed across the active US fleet (93 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 93 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: 41/100 (#61/93)2022: 51/100 (#48/92)2023: 58/100 (#32/92)2024: 56/100 (#33/93)2025: 50/100 (#44/93)2026: 42/100 (#58/93) ↓ -8.3 pts vs 2025
Compare Columbia Generating Station 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

Columbia Generating Station has 46 outages plotted here, averaging 21 days each. The most recent, in Feb 2026, was a unplanned outage lasting 4 days.
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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

Between refueling outages, Columbia Generating Station runs about 730 days, or roughly 24 months, per cycle. That average comes from 13 completed cycles, the most recent lasting 707 days.
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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

After a refueling outage, Columbia Generating Station takes about 13 days to climb from first power back to full power. That average is drawn from 14 startups on record, and the most recent took 16 days.
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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 Jun 17, 2025

45.9% remaining 388 / 685 days 17.1 FPD margin
Columbia Generating Station is 388 days into its current fuel cycle with an estimated 45.9% of its fuel left. This cycle is set up to run about 685 days. Across its last 13 cycles, it has refueled with an average of 8.0% remaining.
Avg refuel: 8.0% Avg refuel (3yr): 5.5% Deepest burn: 2.7% (2013-06 → 2015-05) Most margin: 17.2% (2011-09 → 2013-05)
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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

Over its operating life, Columbia Generating Station has run at about 86.3% of its rated capacity. Across the last 12 reported months it averaged 97.7%. On the chart, flat stretches near the top are full-power running and drops to zero are outages.
This table logs every recorded outage for Columbia Generating Station, 46 in all since 1999. Of those, 14 were scheduled refueling outages and 32 were unplanned or forced. The typical outage lasted about 21 days. Where the Scheduled column shows (Model), the date is a NukeWorker projection because the utility had not published one.
Scram # 58163
2026-02-13 2026-02-16 4 230d - -
Unscheduled
2025-06-24 2025-06-28 5 11d - -
Scheduled
2025-04-12 2025-06-13 63 664d 2025-05-11 -29d
Scheduled
2023-05-06 2023-06-18 44 510d 2023-05-05 +1d
Unscheduled
2021-12-07 2021-12-12 6 173d - -
Scheduled
2021-05-09 2021-06-17 40 692d 2021-05-07 +2d
Scheduled
2019-05-12 2019-06-17 37 354d 2019-05-15 -3d
Scram # 53410
2018-05-19 2018-05-23 5 261d - -
Scram # 52918
2017-08-21 2017-08-31 11 67d - -
Scheduled
2017-05-14 2017-06-15 33 141d 2017-05-13 +1d
Scram # 52442
2016-12-19 2016-12-24 6 264d - -
Scram # 51826
2016-03-29 2016-03-30 2 278d - -
Scheduled
2015-05-10 2015-06-25 47 687d 2015-05-06 +4d
Scheduled
2013-05-12 2013-06-22 42 349d 2013-05-09 +3d
Unscheduled
2012-05-21 2012-05-28 8 245d - -
Scheduled SGR/Major
2011-04-03 2011-09-19 170 507d 2011-04-06 -3d
Unscheduled
2009-11-08 2009-11-12 5 38d - -
Unscheduled
2009-09-29 2009-10-01 3 29d - -
Unscheduled
2009-08-06 2009-08-31 26 37d - -
Unscheduled
2009-06-27 2009-06-30 4 7d - -
Scheduled
2009-05-09 2009-06-20 43 86d 2009-05-10 -1d
Unscheduled
2009-02-09 2009-02-12 4 82d - -
Unscheduled
2008-11-16 2008-11-19 4 85d - -
Unscheduled
2008-08-22 2008-08-23 2 419d - -
Unscheduled
2007-06-29 2007-06-30 2 6d - -
Scheduled
2007-05-13 2007-06-23 42 31d 2007-05-12 +1d
Unscheduled
2007-04-10 2007-04-12 3 155d - -
Unscheduled
2006-11-01 2006-11-06 6 489d - -
Unscheduled
2005-06-24 2005-06-30 7 3d - -
Unscheduled
2005-06-16 2005-06-21 6 7d - -
Scheduled
2005-05-07 2005-06-09 34 260d 2005-05-06 +1d
Unscheduled
2004-08-18 2004-08-20 3 2d - -
Unscheduled
2004-08-16 2004-08-16 1 2d - -
Unscheduled
2004-07-31 2004-08-14 15 395d - -
Unscheduled
2003-07-01 2003-07-02 2 7d - -
Scheduled
2003-05-04 2003-06-24 52 52d 2003-05-04 0d
Unscheduled
2003-03-01 2003-03-13 13 371d - -
Unscheduled
2002-02-15 2002-02-23 9 198d - -
Unscheduled
2001-07-27 2001-08-01 6 26d - -
Unscheduled
2001-06-29 2001-07-01 3 5d - -
Scheduled
2001-05-20 2001-06-24 36 241d 2001-05-20 0d
Unscheduled
2000-09-19 2000-09-21 3 14d - -
Unscheduled
2000-09-02 2000-09-05 4 61d - -
Unscheduled
2000-06-27 2000-07-03 7 249d - -
Unscheduled
1999-09-19 1999-10-22 34 80d - -
Scheduled
1999-04-18 1999-07-01 75 - 1999-04-18 0d
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