Reuters
November 14, 2009 - 12:00 a.m. EST

(Reuters) - DTE Energy Co's (DTE.N) 1,122-megawatt Unit 2 at the Fermi power station in Michigan ramped up to 95 percent power by early Friday from 25 percent by early Thursday after exiting an outage, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

The unit shut on Sept. 30 due to hydrogen leakage in the generator. Hydrogen is used for cooling.

The 1,173-MW Fermi station is located in Newport in Monroe County about 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Detroit. There are several units at the station including Unit 2, which entered service in 1988, and four 12- and 13-MW oil-fired turbines (1966).

In 2008, DTE filed with the NRC to build one of General Electric Co (GE.N)/Hitachi Ltd's (6501.T) 1,550-MW Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactors (ESBWR) at Fermi. The NRC expects to decide on the construction and operating license in 2012.

Using an industry estimate, the company said the new reactor could cost about $10 billion. If DTE decides to move forward with the nuclear plant, it would be able to recover much of the cost from ratepayers over time.

One MW powers about 800 homes in Michigan.

DTE, of Detroit, owns and operates about 11,000 MW of generation, markets energy commodities and distributes power to 2.2 million customers and gas to 1.2 million in Michigan. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)