Platts - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 http://www.platts.com ------------ Steam leak kills four at Mihami-3 Bonn (Platts)--9Aug2004 Kansai Electric Co. is bracing for public and political reaction following a severe leak of secondary side steam at its Mihami-3 PWR that killed four workers and injured seven more. According to Japanese media reports and industry sources, the accident, which exposed personnel to steam at 280 degrees F, killed four workers from a contract firm that had arrived at the plant to prepare for turbine maintenance. The escape of the steam inside the turbine hall immediately scrammed the reactor. Regardless of statements from Kansai and from Japanese regulators that the event was confined solely to non- radioactive secondary side piping, Japanese media immediately described it as "Japan's worst ever nuclear accident." That description, industry sources told Platts, suggests that Kansai and other nuclear operators in Japan may face interruptions in routine operation and regulation at their reactors. ------------ Generator damage keeps German Gundremmingen-C nuke offline London (Platts)--9Aug2004 Germany's 1,344MW Gundremmingen-C nuclear reactor is likely to be out of service for some time after damage was discovered to the generator, operator RWE said Monday. The reactor, in Bavaria, southern Germany, has been on annual maintenance since July 4 and had been expected to return to service in early August. A spokesman for RWE Power could not say Monday how long the unit would remain offline. "We are still assessing the cause of the damage and how best to fix it," he said. RWE's other reactors were all operating normally Monday, he said. Gundremmingen, in Bavaria, southern Germany, is owned jointly by German utilities Eon and RWE, and operated by RWE. A second 1,344MW unit at the site was shut from Apr 25-May 16 for annual maintenance. Eon's 1,440MW Brokdorf and ENBW's 1,365MW Neckarwestheim-2 are both also on outage presently. ------------ Point Beach-1 refueling outage lowers earnings Washington (Platts)--6Aug2004 A refueling outage at Point Beach-1 pushed down earnings for Wisconsin Energy Corp. during the second quarter, the company said yesterday. Expenses at Point Beach were $21-million higher in the just-ended quarter than the same period a year ago, when there was no refueling outage, the company said. The outage reduced earnings by almost 11 cents per share, Wisconsin Energy said. The 66-day outage lasted about 28 days longer than planned, which the company has attributed to equipment and worker performance issues, and the repair of a control rod drive mechanism nozzle. Overall, Wisconsin Energy reported net income of $39-million, or 32 cents/share, versus $49-million, or 42 cents/share, in second quarter 2003. Wisconsin Energy owns both Point Beach units, which are operated by Nuclear Management Co. ------------ Perry to seek license renewal Washington (Platts)--5Aug2004 FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (Fenoc) plans to seek license renewal for Perry. In a July 15 letter, released this week to Adams, NRC's electronic document system, Fenoc told NRC it anticipated submitting the license renewal application in September 2010. Perry's license expires in 2026.