UPDATE 1-Utility delays nuclear vote; NRG seeks partners

(Recasts, updates with NRG comment)

HOUSTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - NRG Energy (NRG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) hopes to find partners to take as much as 60 percent equity ownership in the $6 billion nuclear reactors it may build in Texas, Chief Executive Officer David Crane told the Reuters Global Environment Summit on Tuesday.

On Monday, the municipal utility serving San Antonio, Texas, tabled a resolution to consider moving forward with NRG to seek a license for the new nuclear reactors. The board will consider the item at its next meeting later in the month, said CPS Energy spokeswoman Theresa Cortez.

NRG late last month filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the first complete request in nearly three decades to construct new U.S. reactors.

Princeton, New Jersey-based NRG and CPS Energy seek a license to build and operate two 1,350-megawatt General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) advanced boiling water reactors at the existing South Texas Project nuclear facility 90 miles southwest of Houston.

Crane said he hopes CPS will sign on to be an equal owner of the new reactors with NRG at 40 percent.

Potential partners for the remaining 20 percent interest in the STP 3 and 4 units include financial companies active in U.S. power markets, other nuclear companies that operate boiling-water reactors or a Japanese supplier or utility, Crane said.

The NRG executive told Reuters that having a Japanese partner might help the company to obtain financial support from the Japanese government, along with U.S. loan guarantees and other incentives for nuclear generation that were included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

NRG owns 44 percent of STP's existing two units, CPS owns 40 percent and the City of Austin's utility owns 16 percent. Austin is not expected to decide whether to invest in the new reactors until 2008.