Southern Ga. Hatch 2 reactor up to 90 pct power

NEW YORK, July 16 (Reuters) - Southern Co's (SO.N) 883-megawatt Unit 2 at the Hatch nuclear power station in Georgia ramped up to 90 percent power by early Thursday from 38 percent early Wednesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

Operators reduced the unit to fix a small leak in the condenser, which uses river water to cool the plant systems.

The 1,752 MW Hatch station is located in Baxley in Appling County, about 120 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida. It has two units, 876 MW Unit 1 and the 883 MW Unit 2, which entered service in 1975 and 1979. The NRC extended the original 40 year licenses for both units in 2002 for another 20 years until 2034 and 2038.

Unit 1 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 500 homes in Georgia.

Southern operates the station for its owners, Southern's Georgia Power subsidiary (50.1 percent), Oglethorpe Power Corp (30 percent), Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia (17.7 percent) and the City of Dalton, Georgia (2.2 percent).

Southern, of Atlanta, owns and operates more than 42,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to nearly 4.4 million customers in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)