Regulatory approval for Point Beach uprate

04 May 2011

An uprate of NextEra Energy's twin-unit Point Beach nuclear power plant in Wisconsin that will increase the generating capacity of each of the plant's reactors by 17% has been approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The uprate will increase the capacity of each of the pressurized water reactors from 512 MWe to 600 MWe. The NRC determined that NextEra could safely raise output primarily by carrying out significant upgrades to several plant systems and components, including safety-related pumps and valves, as well as the turbine-generator sets. NextEra will implement the uprate of unit 2 during its current refuelling outage and plans to implement that of unit 1 during its next refuelling outage, planned for later this year. In December 2005, the NRC extended the units' operating licences by 20 years to 2030 and 2033. NextEra - then known as FPL Energy - acquired the Point Beach plant from Wisconsin Electric Power Company (We Energies) for $1 billion in 2007.