WANO: American Nuclear Industry Maintains High Level of Performance

From NEI:

America’s nuclear power plants continued to operate at high levels of efficiency and safety in 2006, according to industry performance indicators compiled by the World Association of Nuclear Operators.

For the seventh consecutive year, the U.S. nuclear energy industry’s unit capability factor topped 90 percent. The median capability factor for 103 reactors of 91.5 percent, when measured on an operating cycle basis, was within four-tenths of a percentage point of the 91.9 percent record set in 2005. Unit capability factor is the percentage of electricity actually produced compared to the maximum electricity a plant could supply to the electrical grid.

These sector-leading levels of efficiency at nuclear power plants produced 787.2 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity last year, second only to the record-high of 788.5 billion kwh of electricity produced in 2004.

To view charts of the WANO performance indicators for U.S. nuclear power plants on NEI’s Web site, click here.