Ohio Perry nuke to shut Sat. for refuel

Thursday February 15, 12:26 PM EST NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters) - FirstEnergy Corp.'s (FE) 1,205-megawatt (MW) Perry nuclear power unit in Ohio will shut Saturday for refueling, the company said Thursday.

Work on the unit, in North Perry, Ohio, was expected to include the replacement of a turbine rotor, which will increase the plant's output by five percent, to 1,320 MW, the company said in a statement.

The plant was scheduled to return to service in late March, with its next scheduled refueling in 2003.

The Perry plant is owned by FirstEnergy Corp. and is operated by its nuclear operating company subsidiary.

FirstEnergy, based in Akron, Ohio, is a diversified energy services company with more than $18 billion in assets and more than $7 billion in annual revenues.

The company's electric utilities -- The Illuminating Co., Ohio Edison, Toledo Edison and Penn Power -- comprise the nation's 10th largest inventor-owned electric system.

In August 2000, FirstEnergy agreed to buy GPU Inc. (GPU) of Morristown, N.J. in a deal expected to be completed by the summer of 2001.

--New York Power Desk, 212 859-1627, e-mail Eileen.Moustakis@reuters.com

http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&news_id=reu-n15473531&feed=reu&date=20010215&cat=INDUSTRY

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 15, 2001

Answers

In case anyone's interested, you can check out current U.S. nuclear power plants' status at:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/psr.htm

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), February 15, 2001.