The US fleet of nuclear power plants have been slow to return to capacity lately, hovering between 91-93% for the last ten days, and begins the day today at 92.4%, against last year's 89.2%. The higher utilization this year has been displacing natural gas as a fuel source, but the comparison is approaching parity. Nuclear outages today represent about 1.5 BCF of additional natural gas fired power, while last year it stood at 2.1 BCF on this date. This autumn's nuclear power plant refueling season is likely to be the shortest, and have the least impact on the power market, in the history of this reactor fleet.
