Dominion Conn. Millstone 2 reactor exits refuel

NEW YORK Nov 19 (Reuters) - Dominion Resources Inc's (D.N) 882-megawatt Unit 2 at the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut exited a refueling outage and ramped up to 42 percent power by early Thursday from 13 percent early Wednesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The unit shut by Oct. 7. It was in hot standby mode since at least Nov. 15.

The unit last shut for refueling from about April 6-May 16, 2008. The unit is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

The 2,037-MW Millstone station is located in Waterford in New London County about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Hartford. There are two reactors at the station, the 882-MW Unit 2 (which entered service in 1975) and the 1,155-MW Unit 3 (1986).

The NRC renewed the plant's original 40-year operating licenses in 2005 for another 20 years until 2035 and 2045.

The NRC in August 2008 approved of Dominion's request to up-rate the generating capacity of Unit 3 by about 7 percent to about 1,230 MW. Dominion has said it would implement the up-rate during the fall 2008 refueling outage.

Unit 3 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Connecticut.

Dominion, which wholly owns Unit 2, operates the Millstone station for its owners.

Dominion (93.47 percent), Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric (4.8 percent) and Central Vermont Public Service Corp (CV.N) (1.73 percent) own Unit 3.

Dominion, of Richmond, Virginia, owns and operates about 27,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities and transmits and distributes electricity to 2.4 million customers in Virginia and North Carolina. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)