Entergy reduces Mass Pilgrim reactor for brief work

NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp (ETR.N) reduced the 685-megawatt Pilgrim nuclear power station in Massachusetts to about half power early Monday for a planned thermal backwash of the main condenser, a spokesman for the plant said.

Electricity traders said the unit would likely return to full power over the next day or two.

The Pilgrim station, which entered service in 1972, is located in Plymouth, in Plymouth County, about 40 miles south of Boston.

One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Massachusetts.

In January 2006, Entergy filed for a 20-year extension of the plant's original 40-year operating license.

It usually takes the NRC about 22 months (November 2007) to decide on a license renewal without a hearing and about 30 months (July 2008) with a hearing.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the NRC's judicial branch, held a hearing on an intervener's contention related to the monitoring of radioactive leakage of buried pipes and tanks at the station.

The intervener, Pilgrim Watch, appealed the ASLB decision on the buried pipes to the commission.

The commission is also looking into another contention related to the plant's severe accident mitigation alternatives, which is an analysis of the cost versus benefits of possible mitigation alternatives.

Entergy, of New Orleans, owns and operates about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes power to 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Walter Bagley)