FPL Fla. St Lucie 2 reactor back at full power

NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) - FPL Group Inc's (FPL.N) 839-megawatt Unit 2 at the Saint Lucie nuclear power station in Florida returned to full power by early Tuesday from 74 percent early Monday after exiting a refueling outage over the weekend, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The unit shut for the refuel by April 27.

The unit last shut for refueling from about Oct. 1, 2007 to Jan. 7, 2008. It is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

The 1,678 MW St. Lucie station is located on Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County, about 120 miles north of Miami. There are two 839 MW Units 1 and 2 at the station, which entered service in 1976 and 1983. The NRC renewed the plant's original 40-year operating licenses in 2003 for both units for another 20 years until 2036 and 2043.

Unit 1 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 300 homes in Florida.

FPL plans to spend about $1.5 billion to add about 400 MW of capacity to the company's St Lucie and Turkey Point reactors by 2012.

FPL's Florida Power & Light Co (FP&L) subsidiary, which owns all of Unit 1, operates the station for its owners.

FP&L (85.1 percent), Florida Municipal Power Agency (8.8 percent) and Orlando Utilities Commission (6.1 percent) own Unit 2.

FPL, of Juno Beach, Florida, owns and operates about 39,000 MW of generating capacity across the United States, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to more than 4.5 million customers in Florida. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)