Washington (Platts)--6Apr2012/226 pm EDT/1826 GMT

Nearly 1,150 more megawatts of nuclear capacity will be taken out of service in refueling outages in 2012 than in 2011, according to Platts data.

But much less capacity will be missing in the first half of the year, and much more in the second half, than during the same periods of 2011.

In the first half of this year, 33 units totaling 34,458 MW are expected to refuel, far fewer than the 44 units totaling 45,310 MW that refueled in H1 2011. All capacity figures are for gross megawatts.

Thirty-three units also are expected to refuel in H2 2012, but they total 34,656 MW, compared with 21 units totaling 22,657 MW that refueled during the same period in 2011.

The 66 units expected to refuel in all of 2012 represent 69,113 MW, up from 2011, when 65 units totaling 67,967 MW refueled. The H2 2012 figure represents the most units to refuel in that part of a year since 2009, when 34 reactors refueled, according to Platts data.

Reactors set to refuel in 2012 were out for an average of 49 days during their most recent prior refueling outages, according to the data.

US reactors are shut for refueling and maintenance outages about every 18 or 24 months during periods of low seasonal demand. Sixty-four of the 104 operating units in the US refuel every 18 months, according to Platts data.

No more than 67 reactors have refueled in a single year during the past 10 years, according to Platts data. Fifty-five refueled in 2010, the lowest number since 1998, when 50 reactors refueled.

Six units, totaling 6,422 MW, already have returned from refueling outages this year: Progress Energy's Robinson-2, Exelon's LaSalle-1; Southern Nuclear Operating's Hatch-1, which began exiting its outage March 21 but has not yet returned to the grid; Entergy's Indian Point-2; Exelon's Limerick-1 and Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah-1.

Eleven units, representing 11,451 MW, are currently in the middle of refueling outages: Southern California Edison's San Onofre-2, Constellation Energy Nuclear Group's Calvert Cliffs-1, Entergy's Grand Gulf, Xcel Energy's Prairie Island-2, Progress Energy's Brunswick-1, Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point-3; Dominion's North Anna-1, Arizona Public Service's Palo Verde-3, Exelon's Quad Cities-2, American Electric Power's Cook-2 and Detroit Edison's Fermi-2.

It is unclear how long the San Onofre-2 outage will last, following the discovery of failed steam generator tubes at that unit and at unit 3, which shut January 31 after a tube leak.

On March 27, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an order outlining what Southern California Edison must do before NRC would allow the utility to restart the reactors.

Sixteen additional units, representing 16,585 MW, are expected to start refueling outages before mid-year: CENG's Nine Mile Point-2; Dominion's Kewaunee and Surry-1; Duke Energy's Catawba-2 and Oconee-3; Entergy's Palisades; Exelon's Braidwood-1; FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co.'s Beaver Valley-1 and Davis-Besse; FP&L's St. Lucie-2; Pacific Gas and Electric's Diablo Canyon-1; PPL's Susquehanna-1; Progress Energy's Shearon-Harris; PSEG's Hope Creek; Southern Nuclear's Farley-1 and Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry-3.

Operating companies, citing competitive reasons, rarely reveal when outages will begin or end, but according to information available on NRC's public document system, the Diablo Canyon-1 outage is scheduled to start in May and St. Lucie-2 outage in June.

--Tom Harrison, tom_harrison@platts.com --Wesley Becker, wesley_becker@platts.com

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