Platts - Thursday, October 23, 2003 http://www.platts.com ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--22Oct2003 Westinghouse to make upgrades at Braidwood, Byron Westinghouse has been awarded a $10.3-million contract by Exelon to upgrade the turbine control systems at Braidwood-1 and -2 and at Byron-1 and -2. Westinghouse said Oct. 22 the contract includes hardware, engineering, and other services. Installation of the new systems will occur during scheduled outages in 2005 and 2006, Exelon spokesman Pete Resler said. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--22Oct2003 Summer moves closer to license renewal South Carolina Electric & Gas Co.'s (SCE&G) license renewal application for Summer moved forward with the NRC staff's issuance this week of a draft safety evaluation report (SER). In the report, the staff said NRC's license renewal requirements had been met. The draft license renewal SER is the first NRC has issued without open items, said Rajender Auluck, project manager for the Summer license renewal. NRC and SCE&G and its contractors agreed on various issues in the SER prior to its issuance, he said. The draft may be revised depending on comments received, including those from the NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. A final SER is to be released in March 2004, and an NRC decision on whether to extend Summer's license to Aug. 6, 2042 is scheduled for June 2004. The report is accession no. ML032820348 on NRC's Adams document system. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--21Oct2003 IG report criticizes NRC inspectors NRC inspectors failed to "recognize the significance" of a 2000 photo and condition report showing boric acid corrosion at Davis-Besse, the NRC Inspector General (IG) said in a report released Oct. 21. The long-awaited report also indicates flaws in the handling of the information by other NRC staff in NRC's Region III and Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), whose inquiry prompted the investigation, said, "Today's IG report demonstrates a complete failure at every rung of NRC's bureaucratic ladder. Time and time again, officials at every level at the NRC neglected to recognize the magnitude of the problems" at the FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. plant. After severe boric acid corrosion on the Davis-Besse reactor head was discovered in March 2002, NRC was criticized for having let the unit operate past a Dec. 31, 2001 inspection shutdown deadline. NRC staffers defended their decision in part by saying that if they had seen the photo, they might have decided otherwise. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--21Oct2003 Iran agrees to IAEA safeguards protocol Iran said Oct. 21 that it will sign the additional safeguards protocol with the IAEA and will suspend all uranium enrichment and processing activities. Iran's announcement came in a joint declaration after Iranian government representatives met with foreign ministers of the U.K., France, and Germany in Teheran Oct. 21. The foreign ministers said in the declaration that once international concerns about Iran's nuclear program are fully resolved, "Iran could expect easier access to modern technology and supplies in a range of areas." The IAEA said it expects in the next few days that Iran will deliver a complete declaration of all its past nuclear activities and an official notification of its readiness to conclude an Additional Protocol. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--20Oct2003 TMI-1 sets PWR world record for continuous operation Three Mile Island-1(TMI-1) set a PWR world record of 680 days of continuous operation, operator Exelon said Oct. 20. The record-setting run ended Oct. 18 when the unit was taken down for a scheduled refueling outage. In addition to typical refueling and maintenance activities, Exelon will be replacing the unit's reactor vessel head. Plant spokesman Ralph DeSantis declined to say how long the unit is expected to be down. ------------