The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has spent the past several years approving a wave of subsequent license renewals, letting reactors originally built for 40 years keep running for up to 80. Each approval rests on the same premise: aging components can be monitored, replaced, and managed well beyond the industry’s early assumptions. Here are ten reactors the NRC has cleared to operate decades past their original design life.
1. Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station (Units 3 & 4): First to the Eighty-Year Mark
In 2019 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted Turkey Point Units 3 and 4 a second license renewal, the first time any US plant had been cleared to run for a full 80 years. That decision set the template every reactor on this list has since followed.
The approval covers two pressurized-water reactors on Florida’s Biscayne Bay, where operators must keep replacing aging components rather than shutting the units down on the industry’s older 40-year assumption. Regulators treat continued inspection and monitoring as the condition that makes the extended run possible.
2. Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station (Units 2 & 3): The Second Plant to Follow
Peach Bottom followed Turkey Point as only the second US plant to secure an 80-year operating window, with the NRC extending its two reactors’ licenses to 2053 and 2054. The license extension arrived in 2020, confirming regulators saw the first approval as a workable precedent rather than a one-off.
Both units sit on the Susquehanna River in southeastern Pennsylvania and have supplied power to the regional grid since the early 1970s. Their renewed licenses mean the plant is now expected to operate for roughly eight decades before either reactor is retired.
3. Surry Nuclear Power Plant (Units 1 & 2): A Third Approval Confirms a Pattern
Surry’s two reactors received their own 80-year extension in 2021, stretching the plant’s operating licenses out to 2052 and 2053. The subsequent license renewal came two years after Peach Bottom’s, adding a third data point to the NRC’s growing record of approvals.
The station sits on the James River in southeastern Virginia, where its pressurized-water reactors have run since the early 1970s. Its operator now expects both units to operate for roughly 80 years total, the same horizon regulators have approved for its sister plants on this list.
4. Oconee Nuclear Station (Units 1, 2 & 3): All Three Reactors, One Approval
Oconee’s three reactors won approval in April 2025 to keep running for up to 80 years, with Unit 3’s license now extending to July 2054. The extended operating license covers the plant’s full three-unit fleet, an unusually broad grant compared with the two-unit approvals elsewhere on this list.
Located on Lake Keowee in South Carolina, Oconee has operated since the early 1970s and was already one of the country’s larger nuclear stations before the renewal. Keeping all three units licensed into the 2050s lets the site continue supplying power to the region without a near-term replacement plan.
5. North Anna Nuclear Generating Station (Units 1 & 2): The Plant That Rode Out a Quake
North Anna’s two reactors survived a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in 2011 that forced both units offline, then went on to win NRC approval in August 2024 to keep operating until 2058 and 2060. The renewed licenses gave the plant the longest runway of any station approved so far.
The plant sits near Lake Anna in central Virginia and shut down automatically when the ground shook, then returned to service without a lasting outage. That resilience is part of the record regulators weighed before approving one of the furthest-out license horizons on this list.
6. Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant: The Lone Reactor on This List
Monticello was already 54 years old when the NRC cleared it to keep running until 2050, stretching its total service life to roughly 80 years from its 1971 startup. The renewal approval makes it one of the older single-reactor plants on this list to win an extension.
Unlike most entries here, which pair two or three reactors under one approval, Monticello is a single boiling-water unit in Minnesota supplying power to the surrounding grid. Its extension shows the NRC applying the same 80-year standard to smaller, single-unit stations as it does to larger multi-reactor sites.
7. Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (Units 1, 2 & 3): Three Units, One December Approval
Browns Ferry’s three reactors received their 80-year license on December 11, 2025, keeping the entire plant online after a review process the NRC had received back in January 2024. The NRC’s renewal tracking table lists it among the newest approvals on this list.
The plant’s three boiling-water reactors sit on the Tennessee River in northern Alabama and together make it one of the largest nuclear stations in the country. With all three units now licensed for decades more, the site avoids the kind of near-term retirement decision several smaller plants are facing.
8. Dresden Nuclear Power Station (Units 2 & 3): Running Since 1970, Approved Again
Dresden’s two reactors were licensed to keep operating on December 16, 2025, decades after Unit 2 first came online back in 1970. The NRC’s subsequent license renewal list shows the utility filed its application in April 2024, more than a year before approval came through.
The station sits along the Illinois River southwest of Chicago and has been part of the regional grid for more than half a century. Its renewal places Dresden among four plants on this list whose 80-year licenses were finalized within the same few months in late 2025.
9. Point Beach Nuclear Plant (Units 1 & 2): The Slowest Review on This List
Point Beach’s two reactors received their 80-year license on September 29, 2025, five years after the NRC first received the application in November 2020. The NRC’s renewal record makes it one of the longer review timelines among the plants on this list.
The plant sits on Lake Michigan in eastern Wisconsin and operates two pressurized-water reactors that have supplied the region since the early 1970s. The five-year gap between application and approval reflects how much technical review the NRC’s subsequent renewal process now involves for each plant.
10. St. Lucie Plant (Units 1 & 2): The Newest Approval So Far
St. Lucie’s two reactors received the newest approval on this list, an 80-year license the NRC issued on April 28, 2026, nearly five years after the utility applied in August 2021. The NRC’s subsequent renewal record confirms it as the most recent plant to clear the process.
The plant sits on Hutchinson Island along Florida’s Atlantic coast, making it the second Florida plant on this list after Turkey Point, which opened the list by winning the first 80-year approval back in 2019. Together the two sites bookend a run of subsequent renewals that has stretched across seven years so far.
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