Platts - Monday, November 22, 2004 http://www.platts.com ------------ Wisconsin regulators reject Kewaunee sale to Dominion Washington (Platts)--19Nov2004 Commissioners with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (WPSC) rejected the proposed sale of Kewaunee to Dominion in a 2-1 vote today, WPSC said. The sale did not "preserve enough of a Wisconsin voice in critical future decisions like storage of imported radioactive waste and decommissioning," WPSC chairperson Burnie Bridge said in a statement. Dominion and the plant's owners, Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Wisconsin Power & Light, said separately that they were considering their options. Those could include appealing the decision or asking the commission to reconsider it. The companies had hoped to complete the Kewaunee sale by December. The commissioner who favored the sale, Robert Garvin, said in a statement that transferring Kewaunee to Dominion "would have materially reduced the cost volatility and overall risk of continued ownership for customers." ------------ Westinghouse wins vessel head replacement contract Washington (Platts)--18Nov2004 Westinghouse Electric Co. will replace Beaver Valley-1's reactor vessel head under a contract announced by the company today. The contract also covers attachment of control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) housings to the head and a "head upgrade package" that will make it easier to take apart and reassemble during outages, Westinghouse officials said. Westinghouse previously had been awarded contracts for fabrication of the reactor head and CRDM housings. The replacement is to take place during the unit's spring 2006 refueling outage. Westinghouse spokesman Vaughn Gilbert said the contract represented a "multimillion-dollar" deal for his company but declined to be more specific. ------------ BNFL team awarded $24-million Hanford cleanup contract Washington (Platts)--17Nov2004 A team led by BNFL Inc. has received a $24-million contract to treat roughly 57 cubic yards of radioactive sludge retrieved from storage facilities at DOE's Hanford site in Washington state. The contract, awarded by Fluor Hanford, runs through January 2007 and calls for the BNFL Inc. team to remove sludge from the K West Basin at the shuttered nuclear weapons plant, and to treat and package it for disposal. "Removing the sludge from the basins will allow us to close the basins, remove the facilities themselves, and ultimately allow DOE to address any soil contamination under the basins," said Pete Knollmeyer, Fluor Hanford vice president, K Basins Closure Project. The BNFL Inc. team includes Fauske & Associates, Los Alamos Technical Associates, Vista Engineering, Mid-Columbia Engineering, Nuvotec, and Parsons. ------------ White House asks Congress to come to Yucca Mountain project's aid Washington (Platts)--17Nov2004 The White House has asked the US Congress to help the administration overcome two potential obstacles to the Energy Dept's plan to build a high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to a senior Senate aide. Alex Flint, staff director for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told reporters Wednesday the White House has asked lawmakers to pass a Bush administration proposal that would fence off billions of dollars in a federal nuclear waste fund for the Yucca Mountain Project in Nevada. The measure would also give DOE some $749-mil in fiscal year 2005 for the project. If the proposal does not pass, DOE is expected to get just $131-mil in this fiscal year to build the spent- fuel repository, well short of the $880-mil the agency sought. That could derail its plan to open the repository in 2010. Congress is trying to finish work on an omnibus bill to fund government programs and could attach the White House proposal in that measure. The White House has also asked lawmakers insert a proposal into the omnibus bill to help get the government around a federal court ruling in July, according to Flint. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals in July threw out a radiation standard for the Nevada site that DOE was planning to rely on to get a Nuclear Regulatory Commission permit to operate the facility. ------------