SCANA to shut SC Summer reactor for refuel

NEW YORK, Oct 16 (Reuters) - SCANA Corp (SCG.N) planned to shut the 966-megawatt Summer nuclear power station in South Carolina on Oct. 16 for planned refueling and maintenance, the company said in a release Friday.

Since the last refuel in the spring of 2008, the plant had a record run of 475 days though it did shut from Oct. 2-12 due to a fault on the generator output breaker on the non-nuclear side of the plant.

During the upcoming refueling outage, the company said it will replace about a third of the reactor's 157 uranium fuel assemblies.

The unit last shut for refueling from about April 25-June 16, 2008. It is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

The Summer station, which entered service in 1984, is located in Parr in Fairfield County about 25 miles northwest of Columbia, South Carolina, the state capital.

In 2008, SCANA's South Carolina Electric & Gas Co subsidiary and Santee Cooper filed with the NRC to build two of Toshiba Corp (6502.T)/Shaw Group Inc's SGR.N Westinghouse 1,100 MW AP1000 reactors at Summer. The first unit could enter service in 2016 and the second in 2019.

SCE&G, which owns two thirds of the operating reactor, would own 55 percent of the new reactors, while Santee Cooper, which owns the other third of the operating reactor, would own 45 percent of the new reactors.

In 2007 dollars, SCE&G estimated its part of the project would cost about $4.5 billion, including transmission. The $4.5 billion did not include capitalized interest expense.

In its latest quarterly update to South Carolina regulators, SCE&G said its part of the new reactors would cost about $6.8 billion in inflation adjusted, dollars including interest and transmission costs.

The company however said the inflation adjusted number was subject to change every quarter based on inflation projections and the initial $4.5 billion estimate had not changed.

SCE&G planned to recover $22.5 million from rate payers under a state law that allows utilities to recover financing costs associated with new nuclear projects before and during construction.

One MW powers about 700 homes in South Carolina.

SCE&G supplies power to about 654,000 homes and businesses and natural gas to about 307,000 customers in South Carolina.

SCANA, of Columbia, South Carolina, is an energy holding company with subsidiaries in the power and gas sectors.

Santee Cooper, the state-owned power and water utility, supplies power to about 2 million South Carolina residents directly or indirectly. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)