Nuclear energy is usually the Tennessee Valley Authority’s largest source of electricity, but use plummeted this past year as outages plagued all seven reactors owned by the utility.

TVA reported 14 unplanned or maintenance outages over a 13-month period, according to a WPLN News review of data from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. TVA did not respond to multiple requests for comment to verify the number of outages.

At least 12 of the outages were “forced,” meaning they were unplanned, while two were likely planned for maintenance purposes.

The longest outage happened at TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., which has two reactors. The main generator at the second reactor failed in July 2024. TVA undertook additional nuclear life extension projects during the extend

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