New Jersey’s Salem nuclear plant plans a 200-megawatt boost despite a degraded reactor shield

PSEG and Constellation are planning a 200-megawatt uprate at the Salem nuclear plant on Artificial Island in Hancocks Bridge, New Jersey, even as an inspection found degraded thermal shield material inside the Salem 1 reactor vessel. The shield sits inside the pressure vessel, and the damage turned up during a scheduled October refueling outage. PSEG expects further testing to stretch that outage.

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Executives raised both items on PSEG’s third-quarter earnings call, held in the first week of November. The juxtaposition is the story: a company telling investors it will squeeze more output from the same site while it works out how much repair one of its two Salem reactors needs. Salem and the neighboring Hope Creek unit together produce more than 40% of New Jersey’s electricity.

A 200-megawatt uprate split between PSEG and Constellation

ANS Nuclear Newswire reported on Nov. 5 that PSEG executives said Salem is expected to receive the uprate, with PSEG’s share at roughly 112 megawatts. Constellation owns 43% of Salem and PSEG Nuclear the other 57%, and PSEG operates the plant. The uprate first surfaced in Constellation’s October announcement of an uprate plan covering 11 units tied to a Google power agreement, and earlier in 2026 PSEG had put Salem’s uprate potential at nearly 200 megawatts.

The site is large. Salem 1 is rated at 1,146 megawatts electric and Salem 2 at 1,139, both pressurized water reactors, while Hope Creek is a single 1,172-megawatt boiling water reactor. Utility Dive’s account of the earnings presentation adds that the uprate would support the recently announced nuclear-focused agreement with Google, and that PSEG Power is negotiating with other large-load customers over existing nuclear output and future upgrades.

Thermal shield degradation inside Salem 1

A thermal shield is a steel cylinder inside the reactor vessel that absorbs radiation and heat before they reach the vessel wall. In October, during the planned refueling outage, a visual inspection of Salem 1 found it degraded. PSEG has started more testing and expects the outage to run longer than planned. Its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission says the effect on Salem 1 depends on the timing and results of the inspection and any repairs required, as the company’s September 30 quarterly report frames it.

Salem 1 had just finished a 491-day run from one refueling to the next, so the unit was operating well when it came offline. PSEG’s nuclear fleet posted a 95.5% capacity factor in the third quarter, up from 92.4% a year earlier, and 94.3% for the year to date. The company has not said how long the extended outage will last or whether repair or replacement of the shield is on the table.

The operating record is otherwise strong. PSEG’s roughly 3,760-megawatt nuclear fleet generated 8,172 gigawatt-hours in the third quarter, and the company forecasts 30 to 32 terawatt-hours for 2026. PSEG says the outage could change the Salem 1 contribution to that forecast, and the company has not published a revised range. Investors will want to know whether repairs run past the winter heating season, when New Jersey leans most heavily on baseload generation.

Licenses, task force and the New Jersey nuclear push

PSEG has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it intends to file 20-year license extensions for both Salem and Hope Creek, according to ANS. Salem is also one of six U.S. sites holding an NRC early site permit, a status PSEG chair, president and CEO Ralph LaRossa has said gives it an advantage in New Jersey’s nuclear plans.

LaRossa told analysts that PSEG took part in the first meeting of the Nuclear Task Force convened by Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a stakeholder group meant to shape state strategy after she signed a bill beginning nuclear procurement. He described the session as the start of public education about the industry’s possible effect on New Jersey energy prices. PSEG’s third-quarter results, released Nov. 2, showed non-GAAP operating earnings of $574 million, up from $565 million a year earlier, while net income fell to $376 million on mark-to-market losses at PSEG Power, as the company’s results release shows.

On the regulatory side, Utility Dive reported that PSE&G plans to file a cost-recovery proposal with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities by year-end, aimed at keeping rates flat, and that the state’s study of the utility business model is in its second phase. PSEG reaffirmed 2026 non-GAAP operating earnings guidance of $4.28 to $4.40 per share and a 6% to 8% compound annual growth target through 2030, with a five-year capital plan of $24 billion to $28 billion that it says can be funded without new equity or asset sales.

The open question is arithmetic. A 200-megawatt gain is meaningful for a site that makes more than 40% of the state’s power, but PSEG has told investors only that Salem 1’s outage will last longer than scheduled, and that the uprate for the site is described as expected rather than approved. Until the further testing is complete, the filing gives no date for the unit’s return.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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