FPL Fla. Turkey Pt 4 reactor up to 73 pct power

NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - FPL Group Inc's (FPL.N) 693-megawatt nuclear Unit 4 at Turkey Point power plant in Florida ramped up to 73 percent power by early Thursday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

On Wednesday, the unit was operating at 48 percent of capacity as it increased power after exiting a refueling outage about a week ago.

The unit shut by March 30.

The unit last shut for refueling from Oct. 29-Dec. 11, 2006. It is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

The 2,196 MW Turkey Point station is located in Florida City in Miami-Dade County, about 25 miles south of Miami.

There are several units at Turkey Point: the 398 MW oil/natural gas-fired Unit 1, the 400 MW oil/gas-fired Unit 2, two 693 MW nuclear units, 3 and 4, the 1,150 MW combined-cycle gas-fired Unit 5, and a handful of 2 MW and 3 MW oil-fired turbines.

Unit 1 entered service in 1967, Unit 2 in 1968, Unit 3 in 1972, Unit 4 in 1973 and Unit 5 in 2007.

Unit 3 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 300 homes in Florida.