Southern Ga. Vogtle 2 reactor exits outage

NEW YORK, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Southern Co's (SO.N) 1,149-megawatt Unit 2 at the Vogtle nuclear power station in Georgia exited an outage and ramped up to 94 percent power by early Monday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The unit shut on Nov. 15 to replace a reactor coolant seal.

The 2,301 MW Vogtle station is in Waynesboro in Burke County, about 105 miles southwest of Columbia, South Carolina. There are two units at the station: the 1,152 MW Unit 1, which entered service in 1987, and the 1,149 MW Unit 2 (1989).

Unit 1 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 500 homes in Georgia.

Southern's Southern Nuclear Operating Co Inc subsidiary operates the station for its owners: Southern's Georgia Power (45.7 percent), Oglethorpe Power Corp (30 percent), Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia (22.7 percent) and the City of Dalton (1.6 percent).

In March 2008, the NRC approved a 1.7 percent up-rate for the two reactors. Workers installed equipment to up-rate Unit 1 during the spring and Unit 2 during the fall of 2008.

In June 2007, Southern filed with the NRC for a 20-year extension of the units' original 40-year operating licenses.

The NRC expects to make a decision on the license renewal in about 23 months (June 2009) without a hearing and about 30 months (Jan. 2010) with a hearing.

In 2006, Southern Nuclear, on behalf of the Vogtle owners, filed with the NRC for an early site permit to build two new reactors at Vogtle.

In March 2008, Southern Nuclear filed with the NRC to build the two reactors at Vogtle.

In April 2008, Georgia Power, Toshiba Corp (6502.T)/Shaw Group Inc's (SGR.N) Westinghouse Electric Co and Shaw's Stone & Webster Inc subsidiary agreed to build two of Westinghouse's 1,100 MW AP1000 reactors at Vogtle.

In August, Georgia Power filed an energy plan with the Georgia Public Service Commission that included a request to build the two reactors at Vogtle. Georgia Power expects the PSC to vote on the proposal in March 2009.

Georgia Power said the units could enter service in 2016 and 2017 if approved by the PSC and the NRC.

The company wants the PSC to allow for the recovery of the cost to build the reactors during construction. Without cost recovery during construction, Georgia Power expects its part of the cost to be about $6.4 billion. With cost recovery, the company expects its costs to be closer to $4.4 billion.

Electricity traders estimated the total cost of the new reactors would be about $14 billion, or $6,300 per kilowatt. Southern however could not confirm the total cost estimate.

Southern, of Atlanta, owns and operates more than 42,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to nearly 4.4 million customers in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)