Entergy planning to limit Vt Yankee reactor output

HOUSTON, June 8 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp (ETR.N) said it would reduce output at the 620-megawatt Vermont Yankee nuclear power station in the coming weeks to repair a leak that is allowing river water into the plant's condenser system, the company said in an email.

The company did not specify the timing or severity of the power reduction, but said it could take several weeks of planning to locate the leak precisely and determine how it will be repaired.

Plant operators said an increase in the chloride concentration in the reactor water indicated that river water is finding its way into the main condenser used to cool steam from the turbine for reuse in the reactor.

The system is designed so that any potential leak path in the condenser would leak river water into the plant. There is no water leakage from reactor water to the environment, Entergy said.

The company said the condition has occurred previously at Vermont Yankee, which entered service in 1972 in Vernon, Vermont, about 80 miles north of Hartford, Connecticut.

One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Vermont.

Entergy, of New Orleans, owns and operates about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes power to 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. (Reporting by Eileen O'Grady; Editing by David Gregorio)