Platts - Thursday, December 25, 2003 http://www.platts.com ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--24Dec2003 Costs at DOE Ohio plant are increasing, IG says DOE's Inspector General (IG) has called for a reevaluation of the cold standby program at the Portsmouth, Ohio gaseous diffusion plant. In a report issued Dec. 24, the department's IG said the program, which was started after USEC Inc. shut down the plant in 2001, was originally designed to last about four years and cost $210-million. DOE, however, now says the program, intended to keep the idled plant in a condition so that it could be restarted if needed, will last five years and cost $399-million. But without a defined endpoint the project could last until USEC has a commercial centrifuge plant in operation around 2011, and that could cost the government an additional $220- million, the IG report said. The IG also said DOE should evaluate the services already provided under existing USEC agreements and not purchase the same items under the cold standby program contract. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--24Dec2003 Multilateral effort returns more HEU to Russia About 17 kilograms of high-enriched uranium (HEU) from a Bulgarian research reactor was flown to Russia Dec. 23, the U.S and the IAEA announced the following day. According to the IAEA, which was involved in the operation, the fresh HEU fuel, enriched to 36% U-235, is to be blended down and refabricated into low-enriched uranium fuel by Russia. The operation was the latest in a program led by the U.S. to return to Russia weapons-usable material from Soviet/Russian-supplied reactors. Previous actions had removed HEU from sites in Yugoslavia and Romania. ------------ London (Nuclear News Flashes)--23Dec2003 BE completes sale of AmerGen share British Energy (BE) completed the sale of its 50% AmerGen interest to Exelon Generation shortly after receiving shareholder approval of the deal Dec. 22. Exelon was BE's partner in the AmerGen joint venture that bought three U.S. nuclear plants--Clinton, Oyster Creek and Three Mile Island- 1. As expected, BE received about (U.S.)$277-million prior to various adjustments. BE said it will pay a break fee of $8.29-million to FPL Group, following termination of the original sale agreement between BE and FPL after Exelon exercised its right of first refusal and matched FPL's offer to become the sole owner of the AmerGen plants. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--23Dec2003 NMC to seek license renewal for Point Beach Nuclear Management Co. (NMC) plans to apply for license renewal for Point Beach-1 and -2, the company told the NRC Dec. 22. NMC operates Point Beach; the two 523-MW PWRs are owned by We Energies. Dave Weaver, We Energies' nuclear asset manager, today told Platts the costs of the relicensing application would be about $22-million. He said the application likely will be submitted to NRC in late February 2004. The current licenses of Point Beach-1 and -2 expire in 2010 and 2013, respectively. If the licenses are renewed, the units could operate for 20 additional years. ------------