Progress NC Harris reactor exits refuel

NEW YORK May 11 (Reuters) - Progress Energy Inc's (PGN.N) 900-megawatt Harris nuclear power station in North Carolina exited an outage and ramped up to 30 percent power by early Monday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The company shut the unit on April 18 for the refueling.

The unit last shut for refueling from about Sept. 28-Oct. 23, 2007. It is on an 18-month refueling outage.

The Harris station, which entered service in 1987, is located in Wake County, about 20 miles southwest of Raleigh, North Carolina.

One MW powers about 700 homes in North Carolina.

Progress Energy, of Raleigh, operates the station for its owners, Progress (83.5 percent) and North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power (16.5 percent).

In 2008, the NRC renewed the plant's original 40-year operating license for another 20 years until 2046.

In 2008, Progress applied with the NRC to build two of Toshiba Corp (6502.T)/Shaw Group Inc's SGR.N Westinghouse Electric Co 1,100 MW AP1000 reactors at Harris. If the company decides to move forward with the new reactors, they could enter service as soon as 2018.

Progress has not said how much the new plant would cost.

In Florida, however, Progress estimated two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors would cost about $14 billion, plus $3 billion for transmission upgrades.

The transmission upgrades however may not be necessary at Harris because the Harris site was originally planned for four reactors but due to changing economic conditions in the 1970s and 1980s, Progress only built only one reactor.

Progress owns and operates more than 21,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to about 3.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)