UPDATE 2-Entergy shuts NY Indian Point 3 reactor

Fri May 15, 2009 10:30am EDT
(Updates with company release)

NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp (ETR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) manually shut the 1,025-megawatt Unit 3 at the Indian Point nuclear power station in New York from full power on May 15, the company said in a release.

The company said operators shut the plant due to a problem with a valve on the non-nuclear side of the plant that controls the flow of water into one of the unit's four steam generators. Steam generators produce the steam that spins the plant's turbines.

There was no release of radiation.

The company did not say in the report when the unit would return.

The 2,045 MW Indian Point station is located in Buchanan in Westchester County about 45 miles north of New York City. The station has two units, the 1,020 MW Unit 2 and the 1,025 MW Unit 3, which entered service in 1973 and 1976.

Unit 2 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 800 homes in New York.

In April 2007, Entergy filed with the NRC for a 20-year extension of the unit's original 40-year operating licenses.

On its web site, the NRC said it will likely make a decision on the renewal sometime after February 2010 at a date still to be determined due in part to upcoming hearings concerning numerous contentions.

Community and environmental organizations have been trying to shut Indian Point since before the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. They fear radioactive contamination from an accident at the plant could cause numerous deaths and injuries in the heavily populated New York City metropolitan area.

Entergy, of New Orleans, owns and operates about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and dist-ibutes power to 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN1554838220090515