Platts - Thursday, June 17, 2004 http://www.platts.com ------------ PSEG to make progress measurements public Washington (Platts)--17Jun2004 Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) will make public their periodic measurements of progress at Salem and Hope Creek, company officials said. At a meeting with NRC officials last night in Swedesboro, N.J., PSEG Nuclear's A. Christopher Bakken, senior vice president for nuclear operations, said the company is developing metrics to monitor the two plants' efforts to fix long-standing problems with corrective actions and safety culture and will release the results of those measurements. NRC officials, including Region I Administrator Hubert Miller, praised that action but also cautioned that the company should not focus on improvements that can be easily measured at the expense of those that cannot. PSEG Nuclear, a subsidiary of PSEG, operates Salem and Hope Creek. ------------ Uncertainty lingers around restructuring of UK generator BE London (Platts)--17Jun2004 The restructuring of UK nuclear generator British Energy, which produces about a fifth of the nation's power, is still subject to "a large number of significant uncertainties" and "important conditions," BE said Thursday when it released its latest financial results. In October 2003, BE exchanged contractual agreements with the UK Government, British Nuclear Fuels and other creditors regarding terms of a financial restructuring aimed at rescuing the group, which had been pushed close to the brink by falling power prices. But the deal could still be blocked. One major factor is whether the European Commission approves the government's application to grant state aid to BE. BE said Thursday the government expected to receive notification of a decision from the EC "during the autumn." ------------ House panel approves nuclear R&D funding Washington (Platts)--16Jun2004 Nuclear energy R&D would receive $122.5-million in fiscal 2005 under a funding bill the House Appropriations Committee approved today. The allocation includes $40.5-million, $10- million over the budget request, for the Generation IV program. Lawmakers earmarked $6-million of the Gen IV money for work on the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) at the Idaho National Laboratory, and $4-million for Gen IV R&D at the Idaho lab. DOE's Nuclear Power 2010 program would receive $5-million, roughly $5.2-million below the budget request. The manager's report accompanying the bill said that while lawmakers supported the deployment of a Generation III+ reactor, they did not think NRC should license any new nuclear units until there is a licensed repository to take their waste. The House is expected to consider the bill next week. ------------ U.S. plants operated at near record 2003 levels, NEI reports Washington (Platts)--16Jun2004 U.S. nuclear plants continued operating at high levels of production and efficiency in 2003, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) said today, citing performance indicators compiled by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). The industry performed at near-record levels even though many plants undertook major projects such as vessel head replacements that extended shutdowns beyond normal refueling outages, NEI said. The 103 operating reactors in the U.S. generated 764-million megawatt-hours (MWH) last year, a 2% drop from 2002's record of 780-million MWH, NEI said. WANO reported the industry's unit capability factor at 89.8%, the fourth highest on record, NEI said. The industry also continued to operate at high levels of safety, NEI said. Charts of the WANO performance indicators are at (http://www.nei.org/documents/ Wano_Performance_Indicators_2003.pdf). ------------ Administration's efforts to end dispute with Russia questioned Washington (Platts)--15Jun2004 Sen. Pete Domenici sharply questioned administration efforts to resolve a U.S.-Russian dispute over liability indemnification for U.S. employees and contractors working in Russia on nonproliferation projects. The disagreement is holding up progress on cooperation that would help Russia turn surplus weapons plutonium into reactor fuel, a project that Domenici (R-N.M.) has championed. Appearing as a witness before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, Domenici said, "Failure to resolve this issue is simply not consistent with the urgency that the Administration has attached to nuclear nonproliferation." Emphasizing the importance of breaking the logjam on the liability issue, Domenici said that if Under Secretary of State for Arms Control & International Security John Bolton, the lead U.S. negotiator on the issue, "can't do it, somebody ought to be put in his place who can." Testifying later at the same hearing, Bolton said it was important not to undermine the liability standard now in place for other nonproliferation efforts in Russia. ------------