Platts - Wednesday, October 08, 2003 http://www.platts.com ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--7Oct2003 AEP says Cook-2 boric acid stains not from vessel leak Boric acid stains on Cook-2's lower head are probably not from leaks from vessel penetrations, operator American Electric Power (AEP) has told NRC. AEP discovered the stains during lower-vessel inspections during the recent refueling outage, which ended in June. The company said that as a result of its on-site chemical analysis, it concluded, "The absence of detectable lithium in all samples is evidence that the boric acid residues are likely the result of refueling cavity leakage occurring during past refueling operations and not the result of leaks from the penetrations. Borated water sources used to fill the refueling cavity do not contain lithium." AEP's report to the NRC of the leakage and the likely cause were in a letter--dated Sept. 17 but released today to Adams, NRC's electronic document retrieval system--that was in response to Bulletin 2003-02, which was prompted by the discovery of leakage from bottom-mounted instrumentation nozzles at South Texas-1 in April. AEP said it would conduct a similar lower-head inspection at Cook-1, whose refueling outage is scheduled to begin this month. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--7Oct2003 Nev. concerned about DOE commitment on key Yucca Mt. issues Nevada has expressed concern that DOE "is backing away from" a commitment to NRC to address all 293 so-called key technical issue (KTI) agreements on a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. before seeking a license for the facility. In an Oct. 3 letter to NRC Executive Director of Operations William Travers, which became available this week, Nevada official Robert Loux noted that DOE now apparently plans to postpone some of the completion dates until after a repository application is sent to NRC in December 2004. "DOE has exhibited a regrettable tendency to attempt at every turn to bend the rules that apply to the Yucca project," wrote Loux, who heads the state's nuclear waste office. "DOE must be made to understand that it is an applicant like any other, which requires it to obey NRC's licensing rules." The KTI agreements called for additional documentation or research associated with technical issues involved in the deep-geologic disposal of radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain. ------------ Paris (Nuclear News Flashes)--6Oct2003 Joint probe planned into Italian grid failure Swiss, Italian and French authorities will jointly investigate grid behavior leading to the blackout that affected nearly all of Italy Sept. 28. The Italian and French electricity and gas regulators, AEEG and CRE, respectively, and the Swiss Federal Energy Office will focus on the chronology of events leading up to the failure of the Italian grid and on coordination among the three transmission system operators, Italy's GRTN, France's RTE and the Swiss utilities. CRE said it was the first time two European regulators and the Swiss administration had cooperated at that level, saying the goal was to ensure "correct implementation" of market rules and grid operating procedures. Swiss authorities have contended they warned their Italian counterparts of short power outages on two key power supply lines well before the dramatic blackout, but say the Italians were slow in reacting. The Italians dispute the charge. Nordel, the transmission system coordinator for Sweden, Norway and Finland, will serve as independent consultant on the investigation. The findings are expected by mid- October. Italy imports some 17% of its electricity, mostly from Switzerland and France. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--6Oct2003 White House agrees to Democrats' pick for NRC slot The White House has agreed to nominate the Democrats' choice to the NRC, according to spokesmen for Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.). In return for the Bush administration's pledge to forward to the Senate the name of Reid's staffer, Gregory Jaczko, Reid relinquished his hold on a string of non-military executive branch nominees. Nineteen presidential nominees were confirmed Oct. 3 after the deal was struck. The junior Nevada senator became involved in the discussions between the White House and Reid after negotiations stalled, said Jack Finn, Ensign's spokesman. Finn said Ensign has been supportive of Jaczko based on his qualifications. Reid had wanted to pair Jaczko with President Bush's pick for an empty Republican spot on the NRC, Vice Adm. John Grossenbacher, who Bush plans to name as chairman, if confirmed. ------------