Platts - Friday, June 13, 2003 http://www.platts.com ------------ Stockholm (Nuclear News Flashes)--12Jun2003 Russia rejects pact with Norway on dismantling subs Russian representatives pulled out of signing an agreement with Norway Thursday on dismantling of non- strategic nuclear submarines, just hours before they were set to approve the pact. In a terse statement, Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Traavik said the Russians claimed they could not sign because they don't know what can be done with the spent fuel from the subs. Spent fuel in Russia is generally reprocessed, but Norway opposes reprocessing and will not fund it as part of the project. Traavik called the Russian move "unexpected and unfortunate." The agreement was to have been signed with the Nerpa and Zvozdochka shipyards for a pilot project to dismantle two subs; eventually about 50 subs stored in northwest Russia could be dismantled. Because they are classified non-strategic, the submarines can be used for military as well as research purposes. This story was first published in Platts daily nuclear news digest Nuclear News Flashes. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--12Jun2003 RPV bottom inspections may become routine Inspections of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) bottoms may become the norm, with both the NRC and the nuclear power industry moving in that direction. Bill Bateman of NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation told industry officials during a meeting on materials issues June 12 the agency is considering requiring all units with fall outages to conduct bare metal inspections of the vessel bottoms. STP Nuclear Operating Co. isn't expected to have determined by then the root cause of the bottom- originating leakage found at South Texas-1, he said. Separately, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Materials Reliability Program (MRP) is recommending that all plants with bottom-mounted instrumentation nozzles perform visual inspections during future outages. The industry group won't get into reinspection frequency until after the root cause at South Texas has been determined, said MRP Chair Larry Mathews of Southern Nuclear. But he said such inspections might be called for at every outage. Alex Marion of the Nuclear Electric Institute said all plants have been asked when they would perform such inspections and what modifications might be needed. He said he expected to have answers in two weeks. ------------