Dominion Conn. Millstone 2 reactor climbs to 18 pct

NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) - Dominion Resources Inc (D.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 882-megawatt Unit 2 at the Millstone nuclear power station in Connecticut ramped up to 18 percent power as of early Friday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The unit has been shut since April 6 for a refueling outage.

During the outage, the company planned to conduct a 10-year reactor vessel head inspection and replace the main transformer in addition to refueling the reactor.

The unit last shut for refueling from Oct. 9-Nov. 20, 2006. It 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 and the 1,155 MW Unit 3, which entered service in 1975 and 1986.

Unit 3 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Connecticut.

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

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