That is exactly how nuclear outages work. Everything is planned in a resource-loaded schedule and many of those resources are just there for the outage. Finlan

That is exactly how nuclear outages work. Everything is planned in a resource-loaded schedule and many of those resources are just there for the outage. Finland is actually somewhat known for running short (1 year) cycles with very very short (<10 days for refuelling is not unheard of) refuelling outages every other cycle alternating with slightly longer maintenance outages. A more typical scenario in the US would be 18 month cycles with a 30ish day outage. Some plants are moving to 24 month cycles with slightly longer outages. Capacity factor for nuclear plants in the US is consistently around 93% (similar figures in many other countries as well), which is significantly higher than other generation sources.