U.S. Nuclear Industry Capacity Factors (1971 - 2007) (file) Over the past two decades, nuclear power plants have achieved increasingly higher capacity factors with the same or greater levels of safety. The average capacity factor for U.S. plants in operation in 1980 was 56.3 percent; in 1990, 66 percent; and in 2007, 91.8 percent.

U.S. Nuclear Industry Capacity Factors by Quartile (2003 - 2007) (file) This bar chart presents 3-year rolling averages of U.S. nuclear industry capacity factors by quartile.

U.S. Capacity Factors by Fuel Type (2007) (file)

This table compares average capacity factors for various generation types for 2007.

U.S. Nuclear Refueling Outage Days (Average, 1990-2007) (file) This bar chart shows the average length of refueling outages for U.S. nuclear plants.