Florida Power and Light has cleared the first hurdle in its
request for a 15 percent uprate of its reactors at the Turkey Point power
plant.
On Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced the
company had provided enough information for agency personnel to begin a detailed
technical review and assessment of the license change. FPL requested the uprate
in October, seeking to boost the thermal output of its two reactors at the
plant 25 miles south of Miami from 2,300 megawatts to 2,644 megawatts.
In addition to two natural gas-driven generators, Turkey
Point features two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors built in the early
1970s producing 720 megawatts of electricity each. In 2009, FPL petitioned the
NRC for a combined license (COL) to build two additional Westinghouse AP1000
reactors at the plant.