U.S. capacity factors: Can older reactors keep up the pace?

摘要

This year, nuclear power in the United States officially enters the license renewal era, as both Oyster Creek and Nine Mile Point-1 pass the 40-year mark and continue to operate. As the nation's 104 power reactors continue to maintain their three-year capacity factors at the level of recent years, with small (and perhaps statistically insignificant) gains, this year's survey seeks to infer performance expectations for power reactors entering their fifth decades by looking at how they have done so far in their fourth decades.