Platts - Thursday, May 27, 2004 http://www.platts.com ------------ DOE says budget cut would force waste program layoffs, delays Washington (Platts)--26May2004 A $131-million appropriation would force DOE to lay off 70% of the waste program's federal and contract workforce, creating an "indefinite" delay in repository operations, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said this week. Abraham's comment came in a response to Rep. David Hobson's (R-Ohio) request for information on the potential impact of a $131-million fiscal 2005 allocation for the DOE waste program, a reduction of nearly $750-million from the administration's request. DOE told Hobson it could be difficult to reassemble the labor pool once funding increased, a factor that could deal the program's pace and available expertise devastating blows. Meanwhile, spent fuel and defense high-level waste would be stranded at sites across the U.S., DOE said. Hobson, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over DOE spending, has maintained that $131-million is the maximum he could appropriate for the program, given that $749-million of the FY-05 request depends on Congress passing legislation reclassifying the waste fee as a user fee. Senate approval of such a bill is doubtful. ------------ IAEA announces anti-terrorism program for Athens Olympics Washington (Platts)--25May2004 A program to prevent nuclear terrorism at the Athens Olympics was announced by the IAEA today. In a press release, the IAEA said it was providing technical assistance in response to a request from the Greek Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) and the Greek Olympic Games Security Division. According to the IAEA, protection has been upgraded at the Demokritos research reactor near Athens and at medical and industrial facilities near Athens that use radioactive sources. While there have been reports of significant delays in preparations for the August games, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said today he was "not aware of any delays and timing glitches" in nuclear security. There has been good cooperation among the GAEC, the IAEA, and the countries, such as the U.S. and France, that are main providers of assistance, he said. ------------ Abraham predicts 'indefinite delay' if project funded at $131 million Mary O'Driscoll, Environment & Energy Daily senior reporter A proposed massive reduction in FY '05 funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository would create an "indefinite delay" in its projected 2010 opening, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said this week. Responding to House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson's (R- Ohio) suggestion that the Yucca Mountain project only be funded with $131 million for FY '05, Abraham said the funding level would have far-reaching implications. That would include a reduction of 70 percent of the 2,400 person federal and contractor work force and a delay in the anticipated December 2004 submittal of Yucca Mountain's license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Abraham's letter to Hobson, dated May 24, responded to a letter Hobson and Subcommittee ranking member Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) sent earlier this month seeking an explanation of what would happen if the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project were funded at $131 million for FY '05 -- a $749 million reduction from the department's funding request ( ------------ E&E Daily, May 12). The difference between the department's total request of $880 million for FY '05 and Hobson's proposed $131 million reflects the Bush administration's assumption for budget purposes that the FY '05 contributions to the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund, totaling $749 million, would be reclassified to avoid the congressional appropriations process altogether. But the administration has had no success in advancing the reclassification proposal this year, as it requires an apparently impossible "three-way bank shot" of approval by House and Senate appropriators, budget writers and policymakers. Hobson maintains his subcommittee only will be able to fund Yucca Mountain at the $131 million appropriations level. Hobson, who is on congressional travel this week, was unavailable to comment on Abraham's letter. However, he did tell a nuclear industry organization last week that the administration's inability to secure authority to reclassify the trust funds has given him no choice but to settle on the $131 million funding level for FY '05 ( ------------ E&E Daily, May 20). Abraham's letter provides detailed information regarding Hobson's 13 questions about the effects of the lower appropriations on the Yucca Mountain repository, which would bury high-level nuclear waste and spent commercial reactor fuel in caverns below a mountain ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nev. The FY '04 payroll for Yucca Mountain's 2,400 federal/contractor work force is $400 million. A 70 percent reduction, Abraham said, would require starting layoffs before July 31 in order for them to take effect Oct. 1, the start of FY '05. "An orderly shutdown would not be possible with such a precipitous reduction in resources from the previous fiscal year," Abraham wrote. Abraham added that the work force reductions would leave the remaining workers to focus on completing the license application document due at NRC in December. But as the work force reduction "would likely cause turmoil within the program and result in the loss of highly skilled technical personnel, the submittal of the license application would be at risk," he said. The work force reductions also would make DOE "unable to initiate repository operations in 2010," Abraham said. "With a shutdown of most program activities and the enormous challenge associated with replacing the federal and contractor work force should funds become available after such a shutdown, there would be an indefinite delay in opening the repository." Detailed effects of program shutdown On a state-specific basis, the shutdown would affect federal and contract workers in nine states and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Additionally, the state of Nevada and its local government employees and their contractors, including the University of Nevada, would see their funding levels slashed. More than $36 million has been budgeted for these programs in FY '05. Hobson said the program affects three DOE sites: the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, the Savannah River Site and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, all of which possess high-level radioactive waste slated for disposal at Yucca Mountain. In addition, the matter affects 15 DOE or federal sites in nine states that possess spent nuclear fuel slated for disposal at the site, as well as 72 commercial reactor sites in 33 states whose spent nuclear fuel would go to Yucca Mountain. Also, there are two commercial storage sites in Illinois and Virginia with spent nuclear fuel that would go to Yucca Mountain, as well as 33 university and private research reactor sites in 22 states. Further, there are: 13 commercial and federal reactor sites in 10 states that are shut down and either are undergoing or have completed decontamination that possess spent nuclear fuel; two commercial reactor sites in Wisconsin and Illinois that are shut down and have not begun decontamination; and three other domestic sites in New Mexico, New York and Texas that possess either high-level radioactive waste material or spent fuel that may be disposed of at Yucca Mountain. And according to DOE's 1995 Record of Decision on the Foreign Research Reactor Acceptance Program Final Environmental Impact Statement, there are 104 reactors in 41 countries that are eligible to participate in the program. Not all reactors are expected to participate, but DOE estimates that 19 metric tons of spent fuel from these reactors would require disposal at Yucca Mountain. Regarding Hobson's questions about the legal and financial consequences for the government if it fails to remove spent nuclear fuel from sites such as the Idaho National Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Abraham said agreements state that failure to remove all spent fuel from the site by 2035 could force the federal government to pay the state of Idaho $60,000 for each day the requirement has not been met. Also, shipments of spent fuel to INEEL could be suspended until the requirements are met. Similarly, DOE has an agreement with Colorado requiring payments of $15,000 for each day after Jan. 1, 2035, that waste remains at the Fort St. Vrain site. And as for the utilities, Abraham said more than 65 claims have been filed in Federal Claims Court for breach of contract to recover monetary damages incurred as a result of DOE's current delays. For each year of delay beyond 2010, utilities will incur costs of $500 million a year to store their spent fuel at utility sites, some portion for which the department would be liable, he said. ------------ [NB04.21-1] US: The Department of Energy announced that it will cooperate with an industry team led by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to conduct a feasibility study on the construction of a two-unit Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) nuclear power plant at TVA’s Bellefonte site. The study – which will cost a total of US$4.25 million over 10 months – will help TVA decide whether to build a new, advanced technology nuclear plant at the site by the middle of the next decade. DOE will fund half the cost associated with the study. (US Department of Energy, 23 May) Meanwhile, Florida Power & Light (FPL) has joined the NuStart Energy Development LLC consortium to develop a construction and operating licence (COL) application for advanced nuclear power reactors. FPL joins nine energy companies in a proposal to share the cost of the development of a COL with the DOE. NuStart Energy’s proposal also seeks federal government cost sharing under DOE’s Nuclear Power 2010 initiative, to demonstrate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) licensing process for building and operating advanced nuclear power plant designs. (FPL, 19 May; see also News Briefing 04.17-1) Copyright 2004 Environment and Energy Publishing, LLC Greenwire May 25, 2004 Tuesday SECTION: ENERGY POLICY & MARKETS Vol. 10 No. 9 LENGTH: 851 words HEADLINE: NUCLEAR POWER: DOE COMMITS $2.1M TO ADVANCED REACTOR PLANT STUDY BODY: Michael Burnham Greenwire reporter The Energy Department will fund roughly half of a $4.25 million feasibility study for what could be the nation's first new nuclear plant in more than three decades, DOE officials announced yesterday. A consortium comprised of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Toshiba Corp., General Electric Corp., Bechtel Corp., USEC Inc. and Global Nuclear Fuel- Americas, will conduct the 10-month examination of a two-unit advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) plant at TVA's Bellefonte site near Hollywood, Ala. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified the Generation III design in 1997. While other nuclear plants have used boiling water reactors, the advanced technology being considered for the Bellefonte site currently is in use only in Japan, and three more units are under construction in Japan and Taiwan. If the Alabama reactor is built, it could provide more than 2,600 megawatts of electricity by 2014, according to the Energy Department. "TVA's decision to lead a team to conduct this study is a positive signal regarding the future of nuclear energy," said Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow during a visit to Bellefonte yesterday. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who joined McSlarrow on the site tour, lauded the study as "catalyst to jump start a new generation of nuclear power" in the United States. "We must harness the possibilities of nuclear power, and I hope that Bellefonte will be the proving ground for new-generation nuclear technology," Sessions added. The study, however, does not indicate a firm committment by the consortium to build the plant. Rather, the group will have the option of pursuing a combined construction and operating license with DOE. That option is possible through a Bush administration initiative to encourage the development of new nuclear capacity by 2010. To help utilities navigate the licensing process for new nuclear power plants, the Energy Department will spend up to $300 million during the next few years and bear some of the financial burden for demonstrating untested NRC regulatory processes. The 1992 Energy Policy Act established a number of new licensing guidelines for nuclear plants as part of an effort to simplify the application process. No new nuclear plants have been ordered or built since 1973, however, leaving the new procedures untested and unproven. Utilities also have been wary of the new licensing procedures. But with federal matching funds availible, two additional consortia have submitted applications to DOE this year to test the new regulatory standards. A group composed of Dominion Resources, Bechtel Corp., AECL Technologies Inc. and Hitachi America submitted an application March 17 for a reactor proposal in Virginia. A second group, comprised of Exelon Nuclear, Entergy Nuclear, Constellation Energy, Southern Co., EDF International North America, Westinghouse Electric Co., General Electric Co., Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light Company and TVA filed an application April 26. That consortium, which has not identified a reactor site, is known as NuStart Energy Development LLC. Representatives from the two consortia emphasize that they have no current plans to build a reactor, and their proposals to the Energy Department do not commit them to projects. Like the Alabama consortium, they hope to use federal funds to help navigate the regulatory uncertainty of the untested NRC application process. If approved by DOE, the Dominion consortium's application process is expected to take six years and cost $500 million. The Energy Department would pay half of the total cost. Dominion would pay no more than $61 million, and the rest would be divided among the consortium's other members, said Richard Zuercher, a Dominion spokesman. Conversely, each energy company that is part of the NuStart consortium would contribute $1 million each year for seven years, said Carl Crawford, an Entergy spokesman. The firms plan to submit their application in 2008, and NRC is expected to weigh in on the application by late 2010, he said. The Dominion consortium could employ an advanced light- water reactor design developed by AECL, said Zuercher. Last September, Dominion sent an application to NRC for an early-site permit for a reactor adjacent to its two existing North Anna reactors, 60 miles northwest of Richmond, Va. The effort could ultimately allow Dominion to bank the site for 20 years, during which time the firm could decide to build new reactor capacity based on market conditions. The NuStart consortium is considering two reactor designs. One design, Westinghouse's "Advanced Passive 1000" reactor, relies on gravity instead of pumps and valves. The other design, General Electric's ESBWR, is a boiling water reactor with advanced features. The Energy Department is aiming to complete its technical assessment of all of the proposals received to date by the end of June, said Hope Williams, a DOE spokeswoman. "The proposals are competitive in that they are being evaluated on their merits, and only limited funds will be available to advance the Nuclear Power 2010 program's goals," Williams said. ------------