Platts - Thursday, May 22, 2003 http://www.platts.com ------------ Kiev (Platts)--22May2003 EBRD, Ukraine make progress on nuclear power sector loan The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Ukraine have made progress over a loan to complete two unfinished nuclear power plant reactors, EBRD President Jean Lemierre said. "We've made progress," Lemierre said at a press conference late Wednesday. He said the EBRD was likely to decide on the loan in the summer. "We agreed what should be the appropriate methodology to calculate tariffs in the electricity sector," Lemierre said. The second progress was real improvement in cash collection in the energy sector, he said. Ukraine and the EBRD are in talks over a $215-mil loan to finish reactors at Rivne NPP and Khmelnytskiy NPP. Both reactors are planned to offset a shortage of electricity after Chernobyl NPP was shut down in late 2000. This story was first published in European Power Alert. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--21May2003 Westinghouse receives $70-million in contracts The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has awarded Westinghouse Electric Co. $70-million in contracts for outage services and spare parts. Westinghouse said it would provide refueling and maintenance services for a total of nine scheduled outages at Sequoyah-1 and -2 and Watts Bar-1. Also, the companies approved a five-year extension of a spare parts contract for the three Westinghouse-designed PWRs. Both contracts will run from January 2004 through 2008. ------------ Stockholm (Nuclear News Flashes)--21May2003 Russia reluctant to accept U.S. nuclear proposal Russia is not prepared to accept a U.S. proposal covering liability in nuclear cleanup work in northwest Russia, but is prepared to continue discussing the issue, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in Stockholm May 21. Ivanov and other foreign ministers were in the Swedish capital to sign the Multilateral Nuclear Environmental Program in the Russian Federation (Mnepr) agreement and a liability protocol. Although all the other parties signed both the agreement and the protocol, the U.S. signed only the agreement. U.S. ambassador to Sweden Charles Heimbold Jr. said the U.S. does not consider the liability provision in Mnepr strong enough and wants coverage to be based on the model included in the bilateral U.S.-Russian Comprehensive Threat Reduction program. But even without full U.S. participation, the agreement paves the way for financing of a massive nuclear cleanup of waste and spent fuel in northwest Russia. ------------