Turkey Point Unit 4 power output dips to 60%

Reuters news agency reported that Nuclear Unit 4 at the Turkey Point power plant dipped to 60 percent power early Monday, Feb. 9, after having been operating at full power on Friday, citing a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission a report.

No reason was given for the reduction in power output from the reactor. Reuters noted that "FPL plans to spend about $1.5 billion to add about 400 MW of capacity to the company's existing St Lucie and Turkey Point reactors by 2012."

In addition, the news agency noted that:

In 2009, FPL plans to file with the NRC to build two of Toshiba Corp (6502.T)/Shaw Group Inc's (SGR.N) Westinghouse Electric Co 1,100 MW AP1000 reactors at Turkey Point. FPL however has said it is also considering General Electric Co (GE.N)/Hitachi Ltd's (6501.T) 1,550 MW Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) technology.

If the company decides to go forward with the new reactors, FPL has said the units, 6 and 7, could enter service in the 2018-2020 time frame.

Read the full Reuters story online, here.