The estimated cost of upgrading Florida Power & Light's four existing nuclear units has risen sharply from the previous estimate because of higher-than-expected labor, engineering and other costs, FPL said in late April.

FPL initially told Florida's Public Service Commission (PSC) its estimate for increasing the generating capacity of two nuclear units at its Port St. Lucie station and two nuclear units at its Turkey Point plant would cost between $2.32 billion and $2.48 billion.

Terry Jones, FPL's vice president of nuclear power uprates, said the earlier estimate was developed more than a year ago, when only 36% of the project's detailed engineering had been completed; 90% has been completed now, he said.