Louisiana’s nuclear plants struggled for stability long before May blackout

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Louisiana ‘s Waterford 3 and River Bend nuclear plants operated below full capacity or offline in 2023.

Waterford 3 faced transformer limits and multiple outages totaling 49 days.

River Bend Station was offline 54 days and below capacity for 29 days.

Reduced nuclear output contributed to a May 25 emergency power shutdown affecting 100,000 residents.

Louisiana’s two nuclear power plants, which federal regulators rated as performing “within the expected range” in 2023, have spent much of the past year operating below full capacity or not operating at all.

At the Waterford 3 nuclear plant in St. Charles Parish, owned and operated by Entergy , the reactor has operated significantly lower than its generation capacity for much of the last year, according to Nuclea