Public Service Enterprise Group Inc's (PEG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 1,209-megawatt Hope Creek nuclear power reactor in New Jersey started to exit a refueling outage and ramped up to 9 percent, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The unit shut April 10 for the refueling.

The unit last shut for refueling from Oct. 13-Nov. 16, 2007. It is on an 18-month refueling cycle.

The 3,551 MW Salem/Hope Creek station is located along the Delaware River in Salem about 40 miles (65 km) south of Philadelphia. There are three reactors at the station, 1174 MW Salem 1, which entered service in 1977, 1,130 MW Salem 2 (1981) and the 1,209 MW Hope Creek (1986), along with the 38 MW Salem 3 oil-fired turbine.

Salem 1 and 2 continued to operate at full power.

One MW powers about 800 homes in New Jersey.

PSEG operates the station and owns all of Hope Creek and about 57 percent of Salem. Exelon Corp (EXC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) owns the remaining 43 percent of Salem.

In August 2007, PSEG said it planned to spend $50 million between 2007 and 2011 to explore the possible construction of a new reactor at Hope Creek.

PSEG told the NRC it planned to file for a 20-year extension of the original 40-year operating licenses for Hope Creek and both Salem units in September 2009.

PSEG, of Newark, New Jersey, owns and operates more than 16,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to 2.1 million customers and natural gas to 1.7 million customers in New Jersey and another 2.9 million customers around the world.

Exelon, of Chicago, owns and operates more than 38,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to about 5.4 million customers in northern Illinois and southeast Pennsylvania and natural gas to about 480,000 in the Philadelphia area. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

New Jersey