Ariz. Palo Verde 3 nuke cut to about 40 pct power

LOS ANGELES, May 12 (Reuters)

The 1,270 megawatt Unit 3 at the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona was holding around 40 percent power early Wednesday, a spokeswoman for utility Arizona Public Service, which operates the plant, said.

Output was reduced while operators investigate a small leak in a pipe in the circulating water system on the cooling, nonnuclear, side of the plant, she added.

On Tuesday the unit had been operating at full power.

The spokeswoman said it was not currently known how long it might take to repair the leak or whether it might be necessary to take the unit completely off-line.

Meanwhile, the adjacent 1,270 MW Unit 1 continued to exit a maintenance and refueling outage which began on April 5. The spokeswoman said it had risen to around 29 percent power on Wednesday morning.

"It will be another couple of days (before it returns to full power)," the spokeswoman said.

The Palo Verde station is in Wintersburg, Arizona, about 50 miles west of Phoenix. The plant is operated by Arizona Public Service, a unit of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. .

APS has a 29.1 percent interest.

Other owners include Salt River Project (17.5 percent), Edison International's Southern California Edison Co. unit (15.8 percent), El Paso Electric Co. (15.8 percent), PNM Resources Inc.'s Public Service Co. of New Mexico unit (10.2 percent), Southern California Public Power Authority (5.9 percent), and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (5.7 percent).

News Provided By