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Exelon, which earlier on Thursday raised its offer to buy NRG Energy, said it would look to sell the 2,410 MW of capacity NRG owns in Louisiana along with the merchant generator's foreign holdings after the deal closes. The Chicago-based company sweetened its offer for merchant generator NRG Energy by 12.4%, saying it would provide NRG shareholders with 0.545 shares in Exelon for every NRG share they hold. Exelon in October offered 0.485 shares of Exelon for each NRG share, a proposal NRG's board and management rejected as too low. On Thursday, Exelon said its new offer, which represents its "best and final" proposal, would increase the value of the deal by more than $3 billion. Should it complete the deal, Exelon said it would look to sell the NRG assets in a move designed to protect its investment-grade credit rating.

NRG says again Exelon bid too low * Says financing plan "troubling" * Exelon unavailable for comment LOS ANGELES, March 12 (Reuters) - NRG Energy (NRG.N), trying to fight off a hostile bid from rival utility Exelon Corp (EXC.N) worth potentially about $5.6 billion, blasted theoffer as being too cheap and urged shareholders on Thursday again to reject the deal. Top NRG executives have been trying to fend off Exelon since October, when the offer to swap 0.485 Exelon shares for each NRG share was broached. [ID:nN26538238] But Exelon, the largest nuclear power operator in the United States, said last month its bid had won support from a majority of NRG's shareholders, and hence extended the deadline on its offer to June 26.

The pressure is on Chicago's Exelon Corp. to sweeten its bid for NRG Energy Inc. The New Jersey-based NRG is among four companies said to be receiving loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy to support new nuclear-power plants. If anything, that will make Exelon want it all the more, analysts said. Exelon launched an all-stock takeover bid in October that NRG has rejected as inadequate. NRG's proposed new nuclear plant in Texas "has been the prime reason Exelon is pursuing the company," said Travis Miller, equity analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. "It's a good growth opportunity."

"Members of an environmental coalition who opposed the relicensing of the Oyster Creek Generating Station have accused its owner, Exelon Nuclear, of violating state law. The coalition's attorney Richard Webster, who is the legal director of the Eastern Environmental Law Center, said Tuesday that "Exelon covered up tritium discharges that occurred in July 2007 and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to follow up to ensure a violation that was to be corrected 10 years ago had been." Tritium contamination was found in the ground at the facility in May. Exelon attributed the contamination to a July 17, 2007 tritium release. Tritium is a weak, naturally occurring radioactive form of hydrogen. Webster maintains that a freedom of information request revealed that Exelon illegally failed to report a major discharge of tritium to the ground in 2007. "As the Department of Environmental Protection has noted, Exelon is required to report tritium discharges," he said."

Exelon and GE Hitachi are considering a joint venture to produce the isotope cobalt-60 at Exelon's Clinton power reactor in Illinois, Exelon spokeswoman Krista Lopykinski said March 19. Co-60 is used in various medical applications and radioactive sources. On March 31, Exelon representatives and NRC staff will hold a meeting to discuss "a potential license application" by Exelon Generation regarding Co-60 production at Clinton, NRC said in a March 18 notice. Lopykinski declined to provide further details.

Exelon is not seeking new merger targets in the near term after its failed bid to acquire NRG Energy, Exelon Chairman and CEO John Rowe said on a July 24 conference call to discuss Exelon's second-quarter earnings. Market power issues would rule out any deal with another independent power producer while regulatory issues would likely hamper any merger with most acceptable utilities, he said. Rowe also said Exelon will not be building any new nuclear power plants, believing that uprating the power capacity of its current 17-unit nuclear fleet is a better value. The company last month postponed indefinitely its plans to build two new nuclear units at a greenfield site in Victoria County, Texas and announced plans for up to 1,500 MW of nuclear upgrades over the next eight years. Uprates for current nuclear units cost about half as much as building a new plant and the execution risk is "substantially lower," Rowe said. Exelon on July 24 announced second-quarter income of $657 million, down from $748 million in second-quarter 2008.

"A radioactive form of hydrogen called tritium was found leaking out of a storage tank this week at the Exelon Nuclear generating station south of Marseilles, plant officials said Thursday in a press release. "We have identified the source of the tritium leak and are taking actions to make repairs," said La Salle Site Vice President Dave Wozniak. "This finding has no impact on public health or safety." Workers performing regular monitoring discovered tritiated water near the base of a tank. Exelon notified state and federal regulatory agencies. On Wednesday workers sampled water at the base of a tank that stores water from the plant and found tritium. The plant is transferring water from the tank to temporary containers. Workers will inspect the empty tank and make necessary repairs, Exelon said. There is no indication that tritiated water has left the station property, Exelon said."

By gaining control of slightly less than half of the outstanding stock in NRG Energy Inc., Exelon Corp. wants to turn a hostile $6 billion takeover effort into a friendly one. The NRG board rejected a proposed merger with the Chicago-based Exelon in November, only to find dissent from shareholders who agreed Tuesday to tender 45.6 percent of their stock to Exelon.

NRG Energy Inc. said Wednesday that it has turned down Exelon Corp.'s revised hostile takeover bid of $8 billion in stock because it undervalues the business. Last week Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear power company, sweetened its offer by about $1 billion because of newly identified cost savings and NRG's recent $287.5 million deal for Reliant Energy's Texas retail business. In a letter to Exelon CEO John Rowe, Princeton-based NRG said it found the new bid was not in its shareholders' best interest but said it represented a "step in the right direction." NRG said it is still open to any proposal that properly accounts for its "fundamental value and extraordinary growth prospects." Exelon, Chicago, previously said that its most recent bid was its "best and final offer."

Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear power company, stands to rake in roughly an extra $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year if the House climate change bill passes, according to the company's own estimates. The House is expected to vote on the bill on Friday. A memo produced for Exelon by Bernstein Research, and obtained by the Huffington Post, reports that Exelon CEO John Rowe recently told a gathering of investors and senior executives that the energy bill "will add $700 to $750 million to Exelon's annual revenues for every $10 per metric ton (MT) increase in the price of CO2 allowances." Prices will range between $15 and $18 per metric ton, the report estimates, "implying a positive earnings impact of $1 to $1.30 per share." Read the full memo.

"Exelon plans to end its distribution of bottled water July 30 to some residents of Godley and others affected by radioactive tritium found in 2005 in groundwater wells near the Braidwood Nuclear Plant. Exelon has been providing up to 20 gallons of bottled water per week to some households for the past four years, according to a press statement released Friday. "Only about 150 of the more than 400 eligible participants are currently taking advantage of the bottled water program," said Exelon spokesman Neal Miller. "

"DEP Commissioner Bob Martin today issued an action plan requiring the owner of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant to take a series of steps to further investigate the 2009 leak of radioactive tritium into aquifers below the plant and ensure the radioactive substance does not endanger public health and safety. Under a directive of the state's Spill Act, the Exelon Corporation must drill new test wells, increase sampling of existing wells, review accuracy of existing data regarding water flow in and around the nuclear power plant, and expand the search area for a potentially contaminating tritium flow. "We have given Exelon very specific directions and they have agreed to cooperate and move quickly to comply,'' said Commissioner Martin, who will tour the Oyster Creek plant on Friday and meet with Exelon officials. "We need prompt action to prevent the continuing spread of the radioactive substance and to ensure it never gets near the region's potable water supplies. This requires immediate attention and Exelon has committed to move as fast as safely possible.''"

A licensing decision regarding the Oyster Creek Generating Station in Lacey Township has been made, but it's not exactly the one people have been anticipating for more than a year. Exelon Corp. is set to become on Thursday the sole owner and operator of the nation's oldest nuclear plant, which will no longer operate under its subsidiary, AmerGen. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, approved the license transfer, which was originally filed in June. "The difference between AmerGen and Exelon, it's been in name only," said Dave Benson, a spokesman for Exelon. "It doesn't affect the license renewal." The document released by the NRC stated that there will be "no physical changes to the facility, nor changes in officers, personnel or day-to-day operations as a result of the transfer."

The Wall Street Journal reports that Exelon Corp. (NYSE:EXC) will extend its offer for NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE:NRG) by seven weeks to Feb 25 as a result of having acquired 45.6% or 106.5 million shares since November. NRG's stock closed at $28.62 on Jan 10 making Exelon's stake worth $3.05 billion. The Chicago nuclear giant is planning several new steps to secure control of the New Jersey-based utility. The New York Times reported that Exelon was also considering a proxy fight to force NRG to sell the rest of the company. Exelon reportedly said it would propose its own slate of directors for NRG's board.

There are no plans to add a second nuclear reactor to the Clinton power plant anytime soon, Exelon Nuclear officials say, despite rumors to the contrary. Exelon Nuclear received an early site permit in March 2007 from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That allows the utility to "bank" the property adjacent to the Clinton plant for a potential new reactor for up to 20 years. "We have no immediate plans to build a nuclear plant at the site, but if over the course of the next 18 years we decide to do something, we have the process started," Exelon spokesman Bruce Paulson said.

Facts about Exelon and NRG Energy. Exelon made an unsolicited $6.2 billion all-stock bid for NRG Energy. EXELON: _ Nation's top nuclear power operator with 17 reactors, representing approximately 20 percent of the U.S. nuclear industry's power capacity. _ Has 5.4 million election customers in northern Illinois and Pennsylvania. Also has 540,000 natural gas customers in the Philadelphia area. _ Reporting profit of $2.7 billion, or $4.06, from continuing operations on revenue of $18.9 billion in 2007. _ Based in Chicago.

Exelon filed a loan guarantee application for two new units in Texas on September 26, Exelon Generation spokesman Craig Nesbit said. Nesbit said Exelon has still not decided whether to build the reactors, describing the loan guarantee application as "another threshold step in moving forward." The company plans to make a construction decision in early 2010, Nesbit said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it has approved transferring the operating license for Three Mile Island Unit 1 from AmerGen Energy Company, LLC, to Exelon Generation Company, LLC. AmerGen had been a partnership between Exelon and British Energy, the NRC said. Exelon said in 2003 it was buying out British Energy's share and would become the sole owner of AmerGen, the NRC said.

NRG's board of directors has unanimously rejected Exelon Corp.'s unsolicited takeover bid, NRG announced November 24. Howard Cosgrove, chairman of the NRG board, said in a press statement that the "Exelon offer is inadequate, dilutive, significantly undervalues NRG and does not fully reflect the underlying fundamental value of NRG's assets, operations and strategic plan," including its market position and prospects for future growth. NRG, based in Princeton, New Jersey, owns and operates one of the country's largest and most diverse power-generating portfolios, including its 44% stake in the two-reactor South Texas Project. Two additional reactors are being considered for that nuclear power plant. NRG added that Exelon's offer might have required "refinancing of all or a significant amount of NRG's existing indebtedness and yet Exelon has not publicly announced that it has committed financing for the offer."

Two years ago when NRG Energy rebuffed an $8 billion buyout offer, it said the bid was far too cheap to be taken seriously. There may be a bit of shareholder remorse this week, with prospective buyers now eying deals through the lense of a global economic downturn. Nuclear power giant and utility operator Exelon late Sunday night made an unsolicited $6.2 billion all-stock bid for NRG in a proposal that would create the nation's largest power company. The combined Exelon and NRG would be big enough to power nearly 45 million homes with 47,000 megawatts, Chicago-based Exelon said. It would have a diverse power mix and a market capitalization of $40 billion.