The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved Southern Nuclear Company’s request to increase the capacity of the two Farley reactors by approximately 1.7 percent. 

According to an NRC press release on October 21, NRC staff determined that Southern Nuclear could safely increase both reactors’ heat output, primarily through more accurate means of measuring feedwater flow. Southern Nuclear is also improving some plant systems not regulated by the NRC to more efficiently convert the increased reactor output to electricity.

The uprates will increase Unit 1’s generating capacity from approximately 910 MWe to 944 MWe, and Unit 2’s generating capacity from about 910 MWe to 953 MWe. The NRC said that Southern Nuclear intends to implement Farley-1’s uprate within 180 days of completing the reactor’s spring 2021 refueling outage and Farley-2’s uprate within 180 days of completing the reactor’s fall 2020 outage.

Farley Nuclear Plant is located in Columbia, Alabama and currently produces around 19% of Alabama Power’s electricity.