The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a 15% power uprate at the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Units 3 and 4, owned and operated by Florida Power & Light (FPL).
The power uprate for the pressurized-water reactors, located approximately 20 miles south of Miami, will increase each unit’s power generating capacity from approximately 700 to 823 megawatts electric, NRC said in a 18 June statement.
The NRC staff’s careful evaluation determined that FP&L could safely increase the reactors’ power output primarily by carrying out significant upgrades to several plant systems and components, including the feedwater pumps and the high-pressure turbine. As part of its evaluation, NRC staff reviewed the company’s analysis showing the plant’s design can accommodate the increased power level.
The NRC’s safety evaluation of the plant’s proposed power uprate focused on several areas, including the nuclear steam supply systems, instrumentation and control systems, electrical systems, accident evaluations, radiological consequences, fire protection, operations and training, testing, and technical specification changes.
FP&L intends to implement the uprate during the spring 2012 refueling outage for Unit 3 and during the fall 2012 outage for Unit 4.
In April, FPL estimated the total cost of its uprate programme, which will add 490 MW of new capacity at its St Lucie and Turkey Point plants, at $3.15 billion. It said that some $151 million, nearly 90% of FPL’s rate recovery request for 2013 would be for the uprate project.
