UPDATE 1-Entergy La. Waterford 3 reactor in cold shutdown

(Updates with company comment)

NEW YORK Nov 30 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp's (ETR.N) 1,157-megawatt nuclear Unit 3 at the Waterford power plant in Louisiana was in cold shutdown on Nov. 28, the company told the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a report.

The unit shut on Oct. 19 for planned refueling and maintenance.

A spokesman for the plant said the unit was in the latter stages of the refueling outage. He could not however say when the unit would exit the outage.

Electricity traders guessed the unit would return to service over the next few days.

In the NRC report, the company said during a test the minimum pathway leak rate exceeded the maximum allowed due to three penetrations that could not be pressurized to full test pressure.

The spokesman said this was one of hundreds of tests conducted during the latter stages of an outage. He said workers found the problem, reported it to the NRC as required and fixed it.

The unit last shut from April 28 to June 2, 2008. It is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

Waterford is located in St Charles Parish about 30 miles (48 km) west of New Orleans. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino) ((scott.disavino@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6072; Reuters Messaging: scott.disavino.reuters.com@reuters.net)) ((For help: Click "Contact Us" in your desk top, click here [HELP] or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and +1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products; For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646-223-5546))