Platts - Friday, April 09, 2004 http://www.platts.com ------------ AmerGen to pay $1-million settlement Washington (Platts)--8Apr2004 AmerGen will pay $1- million in a settlement related to a September 2002 cooling water discharge at Oyster Creek that killed nearly 6,000 fish, the company said today. Under the agreement with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the state attorney general's office, AmerGen said it would pay a $440,000 fine and contribute $560,000 to state environmental groups and causes. AmerGen, the Exelon subsidiary that owns Oyster Creek, said it has implemented procedural changes and personnel training to prevent recurrence of such an event. ------------ Strike hits output at almost all French nukes: union Paris (Platts)--8Apr2004 The French power and gas workers strike hit output at almost all of France's 19 nuclear power plants Thursday morning, according to latest CGT energy union information which showed total production currently down by about 6,000MW. Output cuts peaked at about 12,000MW overnight, the union said. More than 60% of the workforce had joined the strike according to latest information, a union spokesman said. Production was hit at plants at Belleville (where output was down 700MW), Blayais, Bugey, Chinon (1800MW) Civaux (200MW), Cruas, Dampierre (450MW), Flamanville (700MW), Penly (550MW), Paluel, St Alban (2000MW), St Laurent (450MW) and Tricastin, the union said. Cuts were also widespread at thermal power plants including Martigues near Marseille (production down about 680MW), Cordemaes in Brittany (300MW) and at Loire-Sur-Rhone (150MW), according to the union. EDF had asked big industrial clients to reduce their consumption by 3,000MW, the union said. The company was importing power from the UK and Italy, it added. Output cuts would continue during the day but the priority Thursday afternoon were the demonstrations which had already begun in towns up and down the country as thousands of strikers, including some 8,000 in Paris, took to the streets, some waving anti-privatization banners. Earlier Thursday strikers took 'surprise action' and turned off power in the streets of Lille and two other towns in the north of France. They also blacked out government buildings and offices of MP's and company bosses. At Pau in the south-west of the country strikers blocked a transformer and were supplying electricity at night- time rates. The strike is against government plans to change the legal statutes of EDF and GDF which unions see as a first step of privatization but which EDF and GDF bosses believe is essential for the companies future in a competitive market. ------------ Hungarian nuke expects $23-mil losses in 2004,unit 2 remains shut London (Platts)--8Apr2004 Hungary's only nuclear power station Paksi Atomeromu expects to suffer losses of a total of Forint 4.7-bil ($23-mil) this year, Istvan Kocsis, CEO of Paksi said Wednesday. Kocsis said Paksi had managed to reduce losses related to the temporary closure of its second reactor by about 60%. A technical glitch occurred on the second reactor unit on Apr 10, 2003 when its fuel rods overheated in an adjacent cleaning container, which has still not been resolved, causing the block to stay dormant despite the fact that it was due to go back on line on May 1, 2003. Kocsis said that originally Paksi had planned a pre-tax profit of Forint 1.5-bil ($7.3-mil) in its business plan for 2003. He added Paksi could also post even higher losses should the second block be reconnected later than the end of this year. Kocsis emphasized that safety must come before any other decisions to put the block back on line. Paksi has four reactors with 470MW capacity each. ------------ Millstone-3 refueling work temporarily halted Washington (Platts)--7Apr2004 Refueling activities have been temporarily halted at Millstone-3 because of a crane accident that occurred yesterday, Dominion said. But a Dominion spokesman said operations are expected to resume in a day or two and that there should not be a significant impact on the schedule for the refueling, which began April 3. A crane being readied to remove the missile shield from the reactor vessel dropped a beam into the refueling cavity, the spokesman said. The crane was repaired today, and the incident is under review, he said. AECL delays ACR-700 design application submittal date Washington (Platts)--7Apr2004 Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) has pushed back the expected submittal date for its ACR-700 design certification application by several months. Officials with AECL told NRC staffers they now anticipate filing around March 31, 2005. Until yesterday's meeting, NRC had anticipated an application would come in as early as fall, or at least by the end of the year. The new date is to align work with deadlines in a DOE cost-sharing program for activities leading to a combined construction-operation license, said Vince Langman, AECL's licensing manager for the ACR-700 efforts in the U.S. The revised schedule also provides extra time for AECL to put together a "quality submittal," Langman said. NRC staff is trying to wrap up pre-certification activities by September, including finishing a safety evaluation report plan and sending a paper to the commission on any potential policy issues associated with the advanced Candu reactor design. ------------