US autumn nuclear plant outages seen up slightly

* Autumn 2012 outages seen at 20,900 MW
    * Outages reached 19,900 MW in autumn of 2011
    * Five-year autumn outage average 20,400 MW


    June 20 (Reuters) - About 20,900 megawatts (MW) of nuclear
power capacity is expected to be out of service in the United
States in the upcoming autumn refueling season, according to
Reuters data.
     That is roughly 5 percent -- a thousand megawatts -- above
the nuclear capacity shut last year during mid-October, the
height of the autumn refueling season, the data showed.
    The data assumes units currently on extended outages -- like
Fort Calhoun in Nebraska and the San Onofre reactors in
California -- will still be shut in mid-October.
    The companies that operate these plants have not said when
the reactors will return, so it is still possible they could
return before the autumn refueling season.
    Nuclear outages over the past five years have averaged about
20,400 MW in autumn (2007-2011) and 23,000 MW in spring
(2008-2012). 
    Since 1999, autumn outages peaked near 27,200 MW in 2009 and
bottomed at about 12,300 MW in 2004. Spring outages have peaked
at 32,800 MW in 2011 and bottomed at 16,100 MW in 2004.
    The 104 U.S. nuclear power reactors are capable of
generating almost 101,200 MW of electricity, enough to power
about 80 million homes.
    Nuclear reactors operate around the clock as baseload
facilities, providing some of the lowest-cost power.

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