Platts - Friday, June 25, 2004 
http://www.platts.com

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House approves fee reclassification bill with offsets

Washington (Platts)--24Jun2004

Offsets of $576-million were attached to a waste fee
reclassification bill that the House Energy & Commerce
Committee approved today as lawmakers worked to keep the
DOE repository program alive in fiscal 2005. Coupled
with a $131-million allocation in the FY-05 energy and
water funding bill, the offsets in the bill (H.R. 3981)
could put waste program spending at $707-million next
fiscal year. Though the amount is below the $880-million
budget request, proponents maintained it would help to
move the repository project forward next fiscal year.
The alternative--appropriators' $131-million allocation-
-would shut it down, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
has said. Nineteen of the panel's 26 Democrats voted
against the bill, claiming it neither protected future
payments into the Nuclear Waste Fund nor the $15-billion
already in the fund. It was undetermined at press time
whether there would be an attempt to attach H.R. 3981 to
the energy funding bill on the House floor tomorrow.
Attachment would subject the H.R. 3981 provisions to a
House-Senate conference committee on the funding bill.

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Exelon investigating cause of Limerick-2 scram

Washington (Platts)--23Jun2004

Limerick-2 is out of service after a scram, Exelon
Nuclear said today. The reactor shut down automatically
yesterday afternoon after a breaker failed during
switchyard maintenance, Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Ann
Mary Carley said today. Exelon is investigating the
cause of the breaker failure and determining appropriate
repairs, she said. Carley did not say when repairs would
be completed, but other electric market sources told
Platts today that Limerick-2 is expected to be back in
service Thursday.

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