Salem 2 - 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 11, 2025 to Feb 10, 2026Reduced Power: Feb 11, 2026Online: Feb 12, 2026 to Apr 2, 2026Coastdown: Apr 3, 2026 to Apr 4, 2026Refueling Outage: Apr 5, 2026 to May 6, 2026Power Ascension: May 7, 2026 to May 10, 2026Online: May 11, 2026 to Jul 11, 2026Today
OnlineReduced PowerCoastdownPower AscensionRefueling Outage
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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.
46
Excellence
#52 of 93
Mid Quartile
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Days of continuous operation since the last outage ended. Clean run (no forced outages since last refueling).
66
Current Run
days ✔
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Longest recorded period of continuous operation between outages (2023-04-27 to 2024-10-06).
528
Record Run
days
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Breaker-to-Breaker runs — continuous operation exceeding the cycle-adjusted threshold (453 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).
89.6%
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), summed across every unit at this plant. Authoritative actuals, not an estimate.
18.66 TWh
Net Generation
EIA-923 · 12 mo to 2026-04 · plant total
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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
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.
98.8%
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
46/100
Mid Quartile · #52/93
5-year window

Salem 2 ranks #52 of 93 active US units on NukeWorker's Operational Excellence Score over the 5-year window. Strongest area: Forced Outage Days/yr (80th percentile). Weakest: Refuel Duration (18th percentile).

Reliability
52
Capacity factor + Forced outages + B2B streaks
Efficiency
18
Fuel utilization + Refuel duration
Discipline
70
Startup duration + Scram count
Cohort Rankings apples-to-apples comparison within each peer group
Reactor type: #33 of 61 PWR
Containment: #28 of 47 Dry Ambient (PWR)
Cycle length: #26 of 53 18-month cycle
Fleet rank above (52 of 93) compares all active US units; cohort ranks compare only against units sharing this property.
Per-dimension breakdown (7 metrics)
Capacity Factor 42th
90.9% (higher better, Reliability)
Forced Outage Days/yr 80th
1.4d (lower better, Reliability)
B2B Avg Streak 33th
508d (higher better, Reliability)
Refuel Duration 18th
40d (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: 23/100 (#79/93)2022: 33/100 (#70/92)2023: 41/100 (#60/92)2024: 47/100 (#52/93)2025: 48/100 (#49/93)2026: 46/100 (#52/93) Stable vs 2025
Compare Salem 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

Salem 2 has 52 outages plotted here, averaging 17 days each. The most recent, in Apr 2026, was a scheduled refueling outage lasting 32 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, Salem 2 runs about 548 days, or roughly 18 months, per cycle. That average comes from 18 completed cycles, the most recent lasting 546 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, Salem 2 takes about 6 days to climb from first power back to full power. That average is drawn from 19 startups on record, and the most recent took 4 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 May 8, 2026

87.6% remaining 63 / 503 days 0.8 FPD margin
Salem 2 is 63 days into its current fuel cycle with an estimated 87.6% of its fuel left. This cycle is set up to run about 503 days. Across its last 18 cycles, it has refueled with an average of 2.9% remaining.
Avg refuel: 2.9% Avg refuel (3yr): 1.2% Deepest burn: 0.0% (2005-05 → 2006-10) Most margin: 10.8% (2003-11 → 2005-04)
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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, Salem 2 has run at about 89.6% of its rated capacity. Across the last 12 reported months it averaged 90.4%. 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 Salem 2, 52 in all since 1999. Of those, 19 were scheduled refueling outages and 33 were unplanned or forced. The typical outage lasted about 17 days. Where the Scheduled column shows (Model), the date is a NukeWorker projection because the utility had not published one.
Scheduled
2026-04-05 2026-05-06 32 497d 2026-04-04 +1d
Scheduled
2024-10-06 2024-11-24 50 528d 2024-10-06 0d
Unscheduled Startup Hold
2023-04-26 2023-04-27 2 2d - -
Scheduled
2023-04-01 2023-04-24 24 98d 2023-04-09 -8d
Scram # 56286
2022-12-24 2022-12-24 1 408d - -
Scheduled
2021-10-02 2021-11-11 41 503d 2021-10-02 0d
Unscheduled
2020-05-15 2020-05-17 3 4d - -
Scheduled
2020-04-11 2020-05-11 31 241d 2020-04-03 +8d
Scram # 54211
2019-08-12 2019-08-14 3 193d - -
Scram # 53852
2019-01-31 2019-01-31 1 80d - -
Scheduled
2018-10-12 2018-11-12 32 26d 2018-09-15 +27d
Scram # 53606
2018-09-15 2018-09-16 2 130d - -
Scram # 53386
2018-05-07 2018-05-08 2 343d - -
Scheduled
2017-04-15 2017-05-29 45 222d 2017-04-13 +2d
Scram # 52213
2016-09-01 2016-09-05 5 62d - -
Scram # 52048
2016-06-29 2016-07-01 3 134d - -
Scram # 51734
2016-02-15 2016-02-16 2 10d - -
Scram # 51708
2016-02-05 2016-02-05 1 70d - -
Scheduled
2015-10-23 2015-11-27 36 76d 2015-10-15 +8d
Scram # 51290
2015-08-06 2015-08-08 3 389d - -
Scheduled SGR/Major
2014-04-13 2014-07-13 92 71d 2014-04-14 -1d
Scram # 49780
2014-02-01 2014-02-01 1 432d - -
Scram # 48534
2012-11-26 2012-11-26 1 9d - -
Scheduled
2012-10-15 2012-11-17 34 202d 2012-10-14 +1d
Scram # 47766
2012-03-24 2012-03-27 4 250d - -
Unscheduled
2011-07-15 2011-07-18 4 15d - -
Scram # 46992
2011-06-27 2011-06-30 4 51d - -
Scheduled
2011-04-10 2011-05-07 28 174d 2011-04-02 +8d
Unscheduled
2010-10-18 2010-10-18 1 269d - -
Unscheduled
2010-01-22 2010-01-22 1 18d - -
Unscheduled
2010-01-04 2010-01-04 1 55d - -
Scheduled
2009-10-14 2009-11-10 28 517d 2009-10-15 -1d
Unscheduled
2008-05-13 2008-05-15 3 7d - -
Scheduled
2008-03-12 2008-05-06 56 287d 2008-03-05 +7d
Unscheduled
2007-05-29 2007-05-30 2 3d - -
Unscheduled
2007-05-24 2007-05-26 3 205d - -
Scheduled
2006-10-11 2006-10-31 21 14d 2006-10-10 +1d
Unscheduled
2006-09-27 2006-09-27 1 505d - -
Scheduled
2005-04-06 2005-05-10 35 115d 2005-04-05 +1d
Unscheduled
2004-12-04 2004-12-12 9 84d - -
Unscheduled
2004-09-09 2004-09-11 3 51d - -
Unscheduled
2004-07-14 2004-07-20 7 44d - -
Unscheduled
2004-05-22 2004-05-31 10 179d - -
Scheduled
2003-10-10 2003-11-25 47 15d 2003-10-10 0d
Unscheduled
2003-09-21 2003-09-25 5 174d - -
Unscheduled
2003-03-30 2003-03-31 2 320d - -
Scheduled
2002-04-05 2002-05-14 40 81d 2002-04-05 0d
Unscheduled
2002-01-12 2002-01-14 3 11d - -
Unscheduled
2001-12-31 2002-01-01 2 412d - -
Unscheduled
2000-11-14 2000-11-14 1 2d - -
Scheduled
2000-10-06 2000-11-12 38 499d 2000-10-06 0d
Scheduled
1999-04-03 1999-05-26 54 - 1999-04-03 0d
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