NEI's Nuclear Performance - September 2007

Here's a summary of U.S. nuclear plant performances last month:

For September 2007, the average net capacity factor reached 93.7 percent. This figure is 1.3 percentage points higher than the same one-month period in 2006. Monthly nuclear generation was 67.7 billion kilowatt-hours for September 2007, compared to 66.6 bkWh for the same one-month period in 2006.

For 2007, year-to-date nuclear generation was 612.9 billion kilowatt-hours, compared to 597.8 bkWh in 2006 (2.5 percent increase) and 598.4 bkWh in the record year of 2004.

As of October 24, 2007, 12 reactors were in refueling outages and four were completed for the Fall 2007 season.

Final 2006 generation, capacity and capacity factor data for U.S. nuclear plants was released in the Energy Information Administration’s Electric Power Annual 2006. Total nuclear plant summer capacity increased by 346 megawatts to 100,334 MW in 2006. This is the second highest year for total nuclear capacity and is 450 MW short of the record year in 1996 (109 units were operating in 1996). 2006 nuclear generation remained the same at 787.2 bkWh. The final capacity factor for 2006 was updated to 89.6% from a preliminary 89.8%.

For the report click here. It is also located on NEI's Financial Center webpage.