Plans to increase the output at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station are on target for a February 2012 start, a Vicksburg civic group has been told.

The engineering phase of the project is under way, said Steve Saunders, manager of strategic projects for Entergy Services Inc., which owns and operates the plant outside Port Gibson in Claiborne County.

Speaking Thursday to the Vicksburg chapter of Rotary, Saunders said the project will make Grand Gulf the nation’s most productive nuclear plant. The process uses a nuclear reaction to boil water. Steam is then piped to a turbine.

“Basically, we’ll squeeze more power out,” he said. “You put more fuel in the pot, produce more steam and get more energy.”

Called an “extended power uprate,” the process includes both replacing some components and systems and upgrading others. Saunders said extensive engineering work and analysis is required to determine what will be replaced and what can be modified.

Since the 1970s power plants around the country have found ways to increase their production of electricity, Saunders said, with many more having done so since 2000. Instead of building new reactors — an idea that has been proposed for Grand Gulf but put on hold — the trend is to “take what you’ve got and squeeze as much power out of it as you can. Entergy has done a number of these, and now it’s Grand Gulf’s turn,” he said.

The project is expected to cost $574 million, Saunders said. He pointed out that between staff increases of up to 200 employees and as many as 1,200 contract employees on site when construction and modifications begin in 2012, Vicksburg and Warren County will see increased spending.

“They all will be shopping in Vicksburg, and they’ll all be living in Vicksburg,” he told the group, which includes retailers, real estate agents, doctors, dentists and other professionals. “It will have a good impact on the community and hopefully when we get through with it (the uprated plant) will have a good impact on Vicksburg, also.”

Saunders, showing slides of various plant components slated for replacement, got a laugh with the photograph of Grand Gulf’s existing high-pressure turbine rotor, saying, “If anybody wants the old one, let me know.”

Entergy Nuclear proposed the uprate in May. It was approved Nov. 30 by Mississippi’s Public Service Commission, but also needs final approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Saunders said Grand Gulf hopes to have that in hand by the end of 2011.

The proposal for the second reactor was launched in 2002 and won an early site approval good for 40 years in 2007. The company then began seeking a construction and operating license, but that process has been suspended.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com