Total U.S. nuclear plant availability saw a modest increase early Oct. 17 to 86.52%, up from 85.96% on Oct. 16 and still much higher than the 81.36% reported on the same day a year ago.

Providing a lift to total production was the return of Duke Energy Corp.'s McGuire 1 in North Carolina. The unit was pegged at 51% early Oct. 17, after being taken offline on Sept. 23 for planned seasonal work.

On the other hand, Entergy Corp.'s Grand Gulf 1 in Mississippi was operating at 89% early Oct. 17, down from 99% power on Oct. 16.

As of early Oct. 17, a total of 12 nuclear units remain offline.

For details of U.S. nuclear power plant operations, visit our Nuclear Availability and Status and Outage pages.