[en] Success and failure data of test and emergency starts of emergency ac power sources (diesel generators) at US nuclear power plants were collected and evaluated to estimate diesel generator reliability parameters. A regression analysis of the estimates of the probability of failure to start based on surveillance test data from 1976 through 1983 indicates that the probability of failure to start has been decreasing. However, the reliability of diesel generator performance during losses of off-site power for 1981 through 1983 was less than expected based on the test data estimates. The failures that occurred during losses of off-site power were reviewed to determine why the calculated failure to start was greater than expected, and possible explanations for this high value are presented. The subsystems involved in diesel generator subsystem failures were categorized to determine whether there were any dominant failure modes. The results indicate that further significant improvement in diesel generator reliability will require improvement of many subsystems